April 2011
Introducing Starbucks Mobile Pour
We've all been there. You’re walking down the sidewalk with a huge craving for Starbucks coffee with no time to find a location and buy one (no "there’s a Starbucks on every corner" jokes, please).
What if the solution was as easy as whipping out your smartphone to have one delivered to you without missing a step?
Well now it is that easy, inspired by your ideas on MyStarbucksIdea.com we’re proud to introduce the exciting new Starbucks® Mobile Pour service that puts baristas on scooters. In seven of the largest cities around the country, we’re sending out two scooter baristas per every square mile to ensure speedy service.
We've even made ordering easy with our Mobile Pour app for your smartphone. Simply download it, allow it to pinpoint your location, select your coffee order and keep walking. Your fresh, hot Starbucks brew will be in your hands before you can say abra-arabica.
What's more, the Starbucks® Mobile Pour is only the first exciting development of our new mobile replenishment strategy. In the coming months we'll be introducing several other exciting (can you say "mall" and "rollerblades") initiatives that make getting your Starbucks coffee easier than ever.
Find Inspiration in the Global Month of Service
When I think about the 13 years I've spent in Seattle, I'm truly impressed by the spirit of volunteerism here. I've had the pleasure of engaging with lots of folks who embody the spirit of volunteerism, but none more than the Sanford family.
I've known the Sanfords for as long as I have been here, and I recently asked the members of the family about how this spirit of giving evolved.
Moments of Connection in Community Service
In our work with the people of Starbucks, we’ve experienced your commitment to community service. But there is one thing that has convinced me that we were meant to work together – and that is our shared devotion to creating moments of connection. It is those moments of connection with other people that make us smile, bring much-needed comfort, feed our optimism and inspire us to pass the good feeling along to someone else.
At our recent Tribute to President George H. W. Bush, I had the privilege of sharing the stage with four former presidents and inspiring individuals who have devoted their lives to creating change. In meeting them and hearing their stories, a common thread emerged – they simply saw a need and wanted to help.
Service is grounded in moments of connection. These are the connections we make with the strangers we seek to help, the friends and colleagues we work with and the individuals who come forward to share how their lives have been made better that keep us engaged.
Pink Martini song to benefit Japan Red Cross
Our hearts have been with our partners, our friends and their families in Japan.
Two weeks ago, we asked Pink Martini to create song for our friends in Japan. Pink Martini, the “little orchestra” from Portland, Oregon has been a favorite of ours since their debut release “Sympathique” in 1997. We love the band, we love their music and we consider them part of the Starbucks family. A few days after our phone call, the band recorded this beautiful song, “Yuuzuki”, with guest vocals from Japanese actress, Saori Yuki.
Pink Martini is donating all net proceeds from the purchase of the song on iTunes to Red Cross Japan.
We asked Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini about the song, you can find the conversation below.
Every Mother Counts
August 2009. Vogue magazine had a profile on Christy Turlington Burns. Mother. Director. Activist, and yes, something about being a Supermodel, too. What struck me most in reading this article was her passion for the issue of maternal health and the fact that she was using her name and influence for a greater good.
After her own experience of giving birth with complications, she had chosen to bring greater awareness to the issue by directing and co-producing No Woman, No Cry, a documentary about maternal health. It tells the compelling stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world (Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala and the United States).
k.d. lang – Lowercase Name, Uppercase Talent
k.d. lang has racked up a number of remarkable accomplishments in a quarter-century-plus recording career that’s led to the release of her 12th studio album, Sing It Loud (now available at Starbucks).
Restlessly creative, she’s nevertheless found consistent commercial success. She’s a four-time GRAMMY® Award winner who has been called “the best singer of her generation” by no less an authority on the subject than Tony Bennett. I recall being genuinely awestruck the first time I heard her sing at the Fillmore in San Francisco. She’s got rare pipes and she absolutely knows what to do with them, as her latest album attests.
Celebrate Earth Day, April 22
Hi! I wanted to tell you about an exciting event coming up on Earth Day. On April 22 we’re inviting everyone to bring in a reusable mug or tumbler and get a free brewed coffee or tea. Your choice of brew, hot or iced – it is spring after all! This is happening at participating stores in the United States and Canada.
Why are we doing this? We recognize the impact one can make through careful, conscious choices. So we want to encourage and reward those of you who use tumblers or travel mugs in your daily routines. You’re helping to reduce our environmental impact!
If you don’t have a tumbler or travel mug, they will be available for 20% off on Earth Day, April 22. Just so you know, anytime you bring in your own tumbler or travel mug to a participating Starbucks, you get 10 cents off your drink every day.
What if you can’t bring in a mug and don’t want to buy a new one? That’s okay too. Just request your coffee or tea in one of our “for-here” cups and we’ll pick up the tab.
Last year, when we did a similar promotion on Earth Day, more than 1.2 million of you participated. Let’s see if we can beat that this year! RSVP here.
Although reusable serveware and tumbler use still only accounts for a small percentage of total beverages served, those of you who did bring in reusable mugs still made a significant impact. In 2010, people brought their own tumblers into our stores more than 32 million times, keeping nearly 1.45 million pounds of paper out of landfills.
Celebrating 10 Years of Global Responsibility Reporting
Throughout our history, Starbucks has been actively involved in our local neighborhoods and our coffee-growing communities, and exploring ways to minimize the environmental impact of our stores.
Ten years ago, we joined a small but growing number of companies openly assessing their corporate citizenship efforts by publishing our first annual report on these areas. With this simple step, we acknowledged our responsibility to lead by example and put into place measures to ensure transparency and accountability for our progress and performance on community and environmental impacts of our business.
Starbucks Youth Action Kicks Off in London
On April 5, Starbucks UK and Ireland launched a three-year partnership with UK Youth. Over 300 enthusiastic partners (employees) from across the United Kindgom and Ireland came to London to join 150 young people and participate in community service projects in Westminster, Waterloo and Pimlico. Altogether, we contributed more than 1,200 hours to our goal of 200,000 during the Global Month of Service.
This project kicked off Starbucks Youth Action here – a youth development program designed to inspire, equip and empower young people to bring community projects to life in their local areas.
Were you at this event? Tell us your favorite part.
Every Mother Counts: The Music
The Every Mother Counts CD compilation features 15 songs by 14 mother/musicians. We asked them to contribute an original song or a cover around the theme of motherhood.
It could be anything they wanted, and many chose to tackle lullabies or wrote songs for their children. Early on, I worried a bit about an album supporting an issue as serious as maternal mortality, as it could potentially become a heavy listen. But thankfully I found the resulting record veers back and forth between the sweet and the bittersweet, capturing a richness and a greater complexity – exactly like life.
The collaboration that developed throughout the length of the project between Christy Turlington Burns, her assistant (the now legendary Nicolas Newbold) and myself was a focused, organic endeavor that inspired each of us. It was a tight work unit that kept each other looped in and quickly figured out how to pull all this off under quick deadlines, often having to track down convoluted connections. Christy made it easy and a thorough pleasure. No matter where in the world she might be at any given moment (shooting further film footage in Tanzania, a modeling gig in Paris, a film screening of NWNC in the U.K., or even while spending time with her family on Christmas Eve!), she was immediately available online to answer any question, concern, or to second an idea, to problem-solve or simply to joyously celebrate the sound of a new song. She is truly one of a kind.
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