Starbucks Gossip

OPEN THREAD conversation-starter: Share your tales of well-meaning but scatterbrained customers (and baristas)

That was a suggestion from TORONTODUDE in the you-be-the-editor thread. Discuss scatterbrained behavior at Starbucks or anything else Starbucks-related in the weekend OPEN THREAD. || Jump to the third page of comments.

Starbucks recalls more than 12,000 glass water bottles with stoppers

They could shatter and cut consumers when the stopper is inserted or removed. Starbucks has received 10 reports of either the bottles or stoppers breaking, with eight reports of hand lacerations. The $9 bottles were sold this month at Starbucks company-run stores in the U.S. and at Starbucks locations in Safeway and Target stores. || Read "Starbucks recalls glass water bottle || Read Starbucks's press release

Your chance to play STARBUCKS GOSSIP editor: What topic for discussion should be posted?

I frequently get e-mails from readers asking, "How do I post a topic to get a discussion going?" As regular readers know, I start the discussions (but welcome suggestions via e-mail). But today, I'm going to let you be the STARBUCKS GOSSIP editor and throw out your ideas for discussion. They can be drinks-related, service-related, or something to do with the future of the company. What needs to be discussed here?

Read the transcript of last week's Starbucks earnings call -- and the Howard Schultz Q-and-A in Time magazine

Here's the earnings call transcript and here's the Time interview with Starbucks's CEO.

Weekend OPEN THREAD: Ask your questions, or just speak your mind

It was a big earnings report week, there was a controversial Starbucks-related "20/20" story aired, and Starbucks slipped on the "Best Companies to Work For" list. Discuss these things, or anything else about Starbucks in the weekend OPEN THREAD. (Keep it civil to avoid being deleted or banned.) || Jump to the second page of comments.

Howard Schultz got a 25% pay boost in 2009

The Starbucks CEO's total compensation for the year was $12.1 million. His base salary was lower -- $643,954, compared to the $1.2 million it had been for the previous couple of years -- but he earned a bonus of $1 million (after no bonus in 2008) and received option awards worth $9.5 million (compared with $7.7 million in 2008). Schultz's "other compensation" -- insurance premiums, security and retirement plan contributions, etc. -- rose 22% to $935,676. || Read "Howard Schultz's pay increased 25% in 2009"

Teenaged Starbucks barista tells "20/20" TV show about "sex demands" at work

The woman, now 19, gets her story aired on ABC's "20/20" tonight (Friday, Jan. 22). What's reported here has so many credibility problems that I don't know where to start. Feel free to pick it apart. || (ABCNews.com) || Jump to the second page of comments.

Starbucks is #93 on the just-release Fortune magazine "100 Best Companies to World For"

Starbucks was #24 on the list last year, and #7 in 2008. It was #2 in 2005.|| Read "The 100 Best Companies to Work For"

Starbucks CFO's comments about VIA win him the Bullshitter-of-the-Day Award

Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead tells the Wall Street Journal: "We expected a [first-quarter bottom-line] contribution from Via, but it was even more than we expected." Ha, ha, ha! Everyone here knows that VIA "sales" were goosed by ringing up other products as VIA purchases, by making under-the-counter deals to get VIA out the doors, and by basically brow-beating employees into moving the stuff. VIA sales were exactly as fudged -- er "expected," as Mr. Alstead knows. Read "Starbucks Growth Revives, Perked by VIA"

Starbucks reports record quarterly earnings

The highlights:

* Consolidated net revenues increased 4% to $2.7 billion
* Comparable store sales increased 4% driven by 1% increase in traffic and a 4% increase in average ticket
* Earnings per share increased to $0.32 compared to $0.09 in Q1 FY09 || Read "Starbucks Reports Record Quarterly Earnings" ||| Howard Schultz says "the luster's back on the brand"