Starbucked - By Taylor Clark

Starbucked - A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce & Culture

By Taylor Clark

In general I am wary of corporate biographies. Mostly because it is very difficult to write a balanced account. They are either written by a 'visionary' CEO or by someone with an axe to grind. Starbucks is one of those corporations that either produces huge loyalty or huge hatred. I have to confess that I am not a fan and try to avoid them when I can, but I also have to confess that I do like the odd Frappucino every now and then. 

The book is split into 2 parts. The first looks at how Starbucks went from nothing to a multinational Goliath in seemingly no time at all, and the second looks at all the issues people have with them (expensive, ubiquitous, no fair-trade coffee, poor employers) and asks if these issues stand up to scrutiny. This division works well - you could nearly read them as 2 separate books - Clark works hard to provide background, and a human element throughout the book - making it surprisingly easy to read. 

Clark tells us that following WWII in America - instant coffee was king. Fresh ground coffee when it was used was of a very poor standard, and so it remained until the 1970's when the desire for more natural and organic foods reared its head up. A Dutch immigrant called Alfred Peet set up shop in San Francisco, and schooled 3 young graduates in the finer arts of coffee roasting - with these skills: Baldwin, Siegl and Bowker (there was never a 'Starbuck' - that was from Moby Dick - they had actually considered "Pequod" as a name first) set up Starbucks with the intention of selling fresh ground coffee for people to make at home. 

Their business proved a small success in the Seattle area, and they began selling paraphernalia to help with home coffee making. In the mid 80's a keen salesman called Howard Schulz wanted to investigate why a small company was buying so much of his organisations coffee equipment. He was so taken with Starbucks that he wanted in. Following a Damascene moment in an Italian espresso bar, he tried to persuade his partners to make Starbucks a cafe as well as a retailer. They weren't interested, so Schulz set up his own cafe chain: Il Giornale - with the intention of mimicking Italian cafes. 

In the end, Schulz bought out his 3 partners, and made all his (and their) shops: Starbucks. Since then, Schulz has pretty much been the sole driving force behind their expansion (15,000 stores and counting). What you have to admire about Schulz and his business plan was that he persuaded a country that wasn't crazy about coffee to pay $4 a cup for it. He then did it throughout the rest of the world - countries like China and Japan which have never really drunk coffee and don't really drink milk are converts just like everywhere else, and all the shops look the same and are precision designed - there's not a thing in the shop that is there by accident. 

In this first half of the book, there are plenty of interesting titbits - things that didn't work (Lifestyle magazine: "Joe", for example), and things that people thought wouldn't work but really did (Frappucinos). Clark offers up a number of suggestions as to why Starbucks has become so popular - it offers a "3rd place" - somewhere that isn't work or home, it offers genuinely good coffee (or at least it used to), it's coffee is so dark roasted that it has a very high caffeine content - ensuring return visits, it has no real competitor, and it has a scarily effective method of rolling out shops and product. These days he suggests the quality of the coffee and barista are gone, and you are left with a uniformly 'pretty good' drink and a place to sit for a while. People take comfort in the familiar, and outside the US - people want a taste of Americana and maybe even think it brings a touch of sophistication to their town ("we're such a backwater - we don't even have a Starbucks"). 

In the second half of the book - things get a little more scatter-shot. Clark addresses some of the issues people have with Starbucks:

•  They treat employees badly - partially true, though it could be argued they are treated better than their peers in McDonald's. They are rabidly anti-union, but offer better perks and benefits than your average Mcjob. 

• By not going 100% Fair Trade they are helping keep coffee growers in poverty - partially true also. Clark correctly points out that Starbucks are only responsible for about 2% of the worlds coffee purchases (look to Nestle, Kraft etc. for the big boys) and that Starbucks place a premium on good coffee - sometimes paying more than the going Fair Trade rate. However, this premium rate is going to the plantation owner only  -with no obligation to improve labour conditions. Even if they are only 2% of the total market, they are probably the most influential presence in the coffee world today. 

• Their mass saturation technique squeezes out all competition out of towns and cities. This was something Naomi Klein talked about in 'No Logo'. Clark argues that what has happened is that Starbucks inadvertently  increased the demand for good coffee in good cafes - meaning there are more independent coffee shops in America (sorry, no stats outside of the US) than ever before. One smaller chain (Tullys) even suggests they see where Starbucks are opening and then open up nearby - with the reasoning that Starbucks has picked that location after careful study and analysis. I would be interested to see if this was the case worldwide. Certainly in London and Dublin, there are more cafes now than there was 20 years ago. 

• By opening the same shop everywhere they are contributing to making the world a big generic shopping mall. This is a matter of opinion really. McDonald's has the same charge too. People always have the option to go somewhere else (unless you are in an airport). On my work journey, there are 3 Starbucks I could go to - but there are about 20 other places I can get coffee from too

I wanted this book to be a finely honed precision attack on all that was wrong with Starbucks, and as far as that goes, I was disappointed. It is balanced throughout - sometimes to the point where Clark gives Schulz and Starbucks them too much credit - though he never falls for the "we are connecting communities" horseshit. He also doesn't try to come up with definitive reasons for why they are successful - he just offers a few well researched possibilities and wonders how they can continue their claim of offering gourmet coffee as they continue to expand. 

By the by - I wanted to mention this, but didn't know where to put it. Clark spends some time interviewing the late Dr Ernesto Illy and comes to the conclusion that Illy is probably the best coffee in the world (at least in terms of generally available coffee). Shame it's not Fair Trade either....