You want a free comic with your coffee? Starbucks is there for you. Yesterday the coffee giant—which appears to have gotten its groove back after a few years of stumbles and over-expansion—announced some new partners in its five-month-old digital network program. Now, to go along with existing partners like the Times, Good Magazine and Yahoo!, those using the java joint's free wi-fi will soon be able to access the latest issues of The Economist (awesome, considering that mags cover price) as well as "unlimited, free access to its full library of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited." Because when we think coffee, we think Thor? Anyway, the new additions should be available in the end of April.
And new partnerships weren't the only thing that 'bucks CEO Howard Schultz was boasting about at yesterday's 20th annual shareholders meeting. There was the company's surprisingly popular mobile payment system (more than 3 million people have used their Blackberry or iPhone to pay with the company's Starbucks Card Mobile system), not to mention the success of the company's instant coffee line, Via, and their bottled frappucinos. That success has inspired the company to start aggressively pushing to have its products sold everywhere food and beverages are available—which makes sense if they really are scaling back on their store expansion in the U.S.. Though we sort of feel like we already see those frap bottle everywhere, anyway?
Speaking of expansions, we hope the Chinese like Starbucks. The company has set its sites on shifting their growth to focus more on the international market—especially China, where they hope to have 1,500 stores by 2015.
Not mentioned in the meeting? Any plans for any more giant cup sizes.
