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Starbucks Case Final

A) Introduction - An unusual coffee encounter - On a sunny Wednesday morning of April, my customer visit was scheduled for 10 am. As usual, I was early and decided to get a cup of coffee and review my presentation material. I pulled into the parking lot of the first mall, and walked into what I thought was a regular coffee shop; I was in for a surprise. At first, I went back to my car with my cup, and as I was going to turn on my laptop computer, my cell phone rang: the meeting was postponed. The strong fresh coffee aroma had already filled up my car, and I recalled the warmth of this shop that I just walked out of; now that I had plenty of time, I decided to go back there and sit down for a while. This shop was unlike any other I had experienced; people there remembered me and greeted me with a “Nice to see you again!”. Somehow, they must have known that I would come back. I picked up a news paper and sat at the counter; I remember feeling captivated by the atmosphere.

Looking around me in the shop, I noticed that many items were for sale as well: cookies, teas and mugs. I grabbed my cup and looked at the logo, and remembered that I had been in another one of those coffee shops somewhere else in the US.
“That must be a chain of some sort”, I remember thinking.
Back at home that evening, I went onto the internet to look for it.
I discovered the Starbucks Corporation.

How can a coffee shop be a “corporation”?
And why did it feel so familiar to walk in that coffee shop that day?

B) Starbucks: Past B.1) Early days - The original coffee shop: cofounders’ philosophy -

It all started in 1971 when English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker opened a store called “Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice” in Seattle, WA.
They shared a passion for quality coffee and exotic teas, and named the shop after the coffee-loving first mate in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. While they invested themselves $1,350 each,...