Starbucks

(NASDAQ: SBUX · $92.28 ▲ 1.7%) Starbucks is a coffee company that runs cafés serving espresso drinks, brewed coffee, tea and food. The company describes its mission as inspiring and nurturing the human spirit, one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time, and says it is not in the coffee business serving people but in the people business serving coffee. That framing puts the café experience and the staff behind it at the center of a business that competes in the large, crowded market for specialty coffee and quick-service beverages.

Its menu covers hot and iced brewed coffee and tea, Cold Brew, Nitro Cold Brew, Starbucks Refreshers beverages and iced tea lemonades, along with drinks customized with add-ons such as cold foam and seasonal items in flavors like pumpkin, pecan and banana bread. Customers can start an order through the website, join the Starbucks Rewards loyalty program, and get free refills of hot or iced brewed coffee or tea during the same visit when they stay in the café at participating stores. Seasonal menus, online ordering and loyalty programs are common tools in the coffee chain sector for bringing customers back more often and making each visit more convenient.

Starbucks calls its employees partners and describes them as the heart of the Starbucks experience, presenting the role as a chance to grow in a career and in the community and to inspire positive change. The company states that it is an equal opportunity employer of all qualified individuals, including minorities, veterans and individuals with disabilities, and it points job seekers to careers.starbucks.com for openings and benefits. In food service, frontline employees shape much of what customers experience, which makes hiring, training and retention central concerns for large café operators.