Postcards
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Starbucks gets a boost from Costco
Have you noticed that Starbucks' (SBUX) stock has popped up from its seven-year low? Last Monday the shares were trading below $10. Then they got a boost last Wednesday when CEO Howard Schultz noted that he saw a slight upturn in store traffic in October. The stock has outperformed the broader market rally and is now trading just below $13.
Another reason for the nascent recovery: A Starbucks promotion at Costco MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 3, 2008 3:24 PM ET -
Starbucks' Schultz: from cocky to vulnerable
Seeing Starbucks (SBUX), once America's model retailer, post its first-ever quarterly loss, you realize how dire the retail category is these days. Just about everybody except the low-price players like McDonald's (MCD), Wal-Mart (WMT) and TJX (TJX) are losing.
But beyond being a victim of the harsh economy, Starbucks made real mistakes. It dramatically over-expanded. And when Howard Schultz, who built the company from a tiny Seattle chain, fired CEO Jim MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jul 31, 2008 2:42 PM ETPosted in: Andy Serwer, Bill George, CEOs, David Neelman, Ed Zander, Howard Schultz, JetBlue, Jim Donald, John Wooden, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, management, McDonald's, Motorola, Postcards, Power Shift, retail, Starbucks, TJX, True North, UCLA, Wal-Mart -
Why Starbucks is hitting the wall
The news that Starbucks (SBUX) will close 600 stores and lay off as many as 12,000 employees is not only the news that Wall Street was waiting for. It is inevitable. One thing I've learned from my 24 years following retailers for Fortune is this: Every retailer that expands across the U.S. hits the wall on growth eventually. And every retail entrepreneur, no matter how talented, is eventually exposed as MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jul 2, 2008 12:35 PM ETPosted in: 1-800-got-junk, Arthur Blank, Bernie Marcus, Blockbuster, Bob Nardell, CEO, CEOs, Chevron, Circuit City, Dow, Eddie Lampert, FORTUNE MPWomen, Frank Blake, GE, General Electric, Home Depot, Howard Schultz, IBM, Jim Donald, Kmart, Launi Skinner, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, management, McDonald's, Postcards, Power Shift, retail, Sam Walton, Sears, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Wall Street
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Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
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Every year Fortune and the U.S. State Department sponsor the Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership, which brings rising-star women from developing countries to the U.S. to work closely with participants of the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit - among them CEOs Andrea Jung of Avon, Ann Moore of Time Inc., and Ursula Burns of Xerox.
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