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$5.95 for a Cup of Coffee?

"$5.95 for a cup of coffee? You gotta be kidding!"

Well, millions of people around the world enjoying their Starbucks obviously don't think so…

In Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz's book, Pour Your Heart into It, he writes that "the best way to build a brand is one person at a time—starting with your staff."

And so, with his assuming ownership of the company in 1987 he promptly made sure that every single employee became a shareholder in the company. They in turn also became passionate about their coffee, like he was.

The company's astounding annual financial reports indicate that the ball didn't stop rolling there…

Yet, while Mr. Schultz must be credited with amazing results transforming four coffee shops in Seattle into more than 16,000 in 49 countries, he definitely can't claim originality for his strategy.

5,747 years before he took over the company, the world's first Entrepreneur, the Creator of heaven and earth, employed a similar tactic when launching our world into existence.

In describing the Sixth Day of Creation, the verse tells us that G‑d rested from all His work which he created "to make."

To make what?

The commentaries note that a deeper interpretation would read: "Everything which He created to be perfected."

He created an incomplete world which still needed to be "finished."

In doing so, He transformed Adam and Eve – and their subsequent offspring – from stewards of the universe into shareholding partners.

A partner in the creation of the world is both a responsibility and an opportunity.

Either way it changes our attitude from one of mechanical obedience into emotional passion.

While we can get away with doing the bare minimum: a Friday night with friends as the sum total of Shabbat, avoiding prawns and bacon for the sum total of kosher, and sending an annual check to the local charity for the sum total of helping others—that's not the Starbucks attitude.

Remember, you've got shares in the company. Be passionate about it.

$500 for two little black boxes?"

Of course! It's a Starbucks pair of tefillin!


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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: Dec 8, 2009
point
Thank you Asher. What is so intriguing about your lesson is how the title takes one's eye off the ball. I have a Starbucks mug. On the mug is the drink description. When Starbucks staff are through reading the description, they inadvertently fail to deduct 10 cents for my providing the mug. It happens at least 4 out of 5 visits. I use a Starbucks card and always ask for the receipt in order to look for the 10 cent deduction.
I mention this story because your title alarms us Starbucks fans to take offense to the overinflated price of a cup of coffee, and miss the real message, partnership with G-d. You have done it beautifully and possibly unwittingly in reverse to my story. You have led/misled us to watch for the ' dime ' and get the ' drink ' wrong. You got us looking at $5.95 versus the priceless partnership with G-d.. If this was not your intention, it is a simple oversight. If it was your intention, you have pulled a good one.
Posted By Anonymous

Posted: Dec 7, 2009
How many years?
I'm sorry, but I don't buy the idea that the earth is a mere 6,000 years old. One has to suspend their understanding of science to accept that. Coffee has proven to be good in moderation, but on the few occasions I've been to Starbucks, I have purchased the COD, the coffee of the day for well under two bucks. I will either drink that or an Americano which again is less than two bucks. I limit my intake to a cup or two a day because I have had heart attacks and strokes.

I find no discrepancies between Torah and science. I've a fossil in my back yard that has been dated to be approximately half a million years old.
Posted By Beverly Kurtin, Hurst , TX

Posted: Nov 29, 2009
$5.95 for coffee
Where do you go?

My starbucks in the Oak Park area charges less than $2. for a regular large coffee

Only the fancy lattes cost more
But one cofee is not $5.95
Posted By shirley prescott, westlake vill, ca

Posted: Nov 27, 2009
One at a time
Since you printed my Starbucks note defending Starbucks pricing, i should say that your article intends an excellent message. We are shareholders in G-d's meaning for us here on Earth, which is to build a G-dly dwelling place for him. As partners, G-d provides his G-dly illumination, while we provide Torah study, prayer and mitzvot. As individuals we enter into this partnership with G-d , one by one. Similarly, by doing our part, for example observing all the mitzvot of Shabbat one mitzvah at a time, we get closer to G-d, closer to management positions so to speak.

Thanks. I just wanted to point out that your message did not get lost in my defense of Starbucks pricing, while missing their good points. By the way Shultz was the son of middle class parents. At some point his father lost his job and had no benefits. Young Shultz determined at that time that if he were an owner, his staff would have proper benefits. G-d looks after all of his flock, us.
Posted By Anonymous, winnipeg, canada

Posted: Nov 27, 2009
Coffee
Well, I suppose like the saying goes, "there is a sucker born every minute<" and I don't believe that Starbucks has all that great a coffee. Also, coffee is not health wise, and too much of it over a period of time can have very bad effects on the internal and central nervous systems of the body. Also, coffee is very habit forming and too much caffeine causes a craving in the same manner the dope using junkies develop..
Posted By Gaveril, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Posted: Nov 25, 2009
Love this article!
This really got me smiling! A good way to look at things.
Posted By Tana, Pittsburgh, PA

Posted: Nov 25, 2009
hmmm
I am a Starbucks regular here in Canada and I have visited Strabucks wherever I have traveled in the world. $5.95 for a cup of Starbucks coffee ? .I have never seen one that high. Regular coffee is about 2.50. You get free refills. $ 5.05 is the highest cost of a cup of some fancy expresso, or cold souped up special with swirls and whipped cream etc., which in Italy at a restaurant would cost you $10.00 or more.. 90% of Starbucks staff are upbeat and sociable., a cut above other less expensive coffee houses.$1.50 at McDonalds is not the same thing. If you buy a Starbucks card, you get substantial savings.
Forget the idea that Starbucks is as good a deal if not better than elsewhere, I take issue with anyone, bar none, who tries to tell me how to spend my money. By the same token I would not presume to tell anyone bar none, ( my children excluded) how to spend his/her time effectively.
Posted By Anonymous, winnipeg, canada

Posted: Nov 25, 2009
Tzadaka for $5.95 a day and forgo the coffee
Unbelievable that people are willing to pay such an outrageous amount of money for something that is not even essential for their well-being and survival.

You think they give that much to their shul or Federation every day???
Posted By Mark Schwartz, Tel Aviv, Israel

Posted: Nov 25, 2009
My friend would fwd me articles by the author from time to time, I am very happy he begen publicizing them.
Posted By George

Posted: Nov 25, 2009
Finally
Rabbi Deren I’ve been waiting for you to go public for years.
Posted By shareholder in you , Helsinki
via jewishdiscoverycenter.org


 



By Asher Deren   More by this authors...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author
Rabbi Asher Deren, born and raised in the Northeastern USA, lives in Cape Town, South Africa, where he and his wife Zeesy, whose parents were sent by the Rebbe to South Africa in 1976, established Chabad of the West Coast, South Africa.

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