I grew up in in the projects federally subsidized housing in Brooklyn I
literally saw the fracturing of the American Dream and hopelessness and
despair and what it meant to live on the other side of the tracks and be that
poor kid I think those scars and vulnerability of the imprinting of those
experiences stayed with me my whole life even today and you grew up around a lot
of ethnic diversity too I did I grew up obviously in the projects with a lot of
different types of people a lot of diversity and and we had all get along
and we did and I didn't see color as a young kid it was there a lot of cooking
around what did your mom do a lot of cooking would say that because you know
you can you can smell food in the hallways and people left their doors
open it was a different kind of environment back then of sharing of
community of kinship and you know a large currency of trust which I think
we've lost a bit of capturing that childhood feeling of community he
created Starbucks the neighborhood Gathering Place
America was missing I took my first trip to Italy in 1983
and was captivated by the Italian coffee bars throughout the city and every time
I went into one of those coffee bars what I felt in addition to the quality
of coffee was a sense of community and that pretty much did not exist in the US
and so the the original idea was could we create a third place in America
between home and work and could we recreate the coffee experience because
in the early 80s not only was Starbucks non existent
pretty much but no one really knew what quality coffee tasted like so it was the
experience to quality the coffee and trying to create an environment where
people really felt that they could come together in an environment that did not
exist in the US but did anyone including myself believe we'd have 27,000 stores
in 75 countries 2,800 alone in China no we did not
people really cocooning back then I remember that yeah people were cocooning
they weren't going out to look for a space where they could be with other
people in their neighborhood yeah one of the benefits is Coffee is part of
conversation it's a very social beverage also the theater the romance of espresso
and the way we brought coffee to life and then something happened along the
way that we didn't plan on which was customization we had no idea that people
would start customizing their beverages and we've now counted about 90,000
different beverages concoctions and customized beverages that people have
annually at Starbucks I'm about to test Howard Schultz
well it's funny that you should mention that because
there is a cult menu there is a secret menu there is a secret menu do you know
what these are well the red eye is a shot of espresso in brewed coffee
correct the black eye no green and I know I don't know the black eye is two
shots of espresso and the green eye is three shots of espresso well if you're
ordering three three shots of espresso in brewed coffee I brought one you need
more than one eye yeah and Howard Schultz does love his coffee I've been
known to go behind the counter to make my own coffee
time what they do when you do that there they're fine with it do you ever give
yourself a tip in the tip jar no no but I we always pay and everyone pays at
Starbucks okay yeah I read that because I read that Sheryl Sandberg
when she was on your board yes yeah she gotta pay she had to pay for own coffee
oh she should pay double action yeah and Howard Schultz created that company and
now it's worth six billion dollars and employs two hundred and thirty-eight
thousand people worldwide you go home just like smelling like coffee I do when I go home and
shower it's basically brews coffee off my skin and in princi
we're gonna be in the alcohol business as well oh speaking my language yeah so
we're gonna bring Italian alcohol beverages and wine and beer and do all
the kind of things right here you're listening to something which I love so
we were in a train station in Geneva and we're just walking by and I said you
know that's the kind of thing we should be putting in a roaster that's strange
so every time we roast coffee we're telling our customers sense of
innovation reinvention and also the recognition that there's a seismic
change going on in brick-and-mortar retail today where you must create an
unbelievable stunning experience well this is yet you want to go up and
look at princi yeah yeah all right let's do it
this is a man that truly understands what it means to be
in his shop every day working with the product working with his people and
ensuring the same quality had we started with a young boy 80% and 20% sugar so tell me
more about why Rocko why Princi what are you doing for
lunch I mean Starbucks getting into the lunch business is a big story
yeah when I walked into the bakery in Milan and met Rocco for the first time I
knew that I was walking into something extraordinary
we've all been in bakeries we've all had good food seeing him his attention to
detail his passion the quality the integrity and every item just unto unto
its own is just so good the coffee the dinner romance of all the baked goods
and the symphony of flavor it's a dream come true
cheers cent'anni very nice the first known mention of pumpkin spice is in the 1936th issue of
Washington Post that I did not know there you go so if we got if we got a nickel for every time
pumpkin spice latte were sold believe me I'm not there's no lawsuit here I'm just
just mentioning it