Roastery是星巴克的未來 Starbucks Prospers by Keeping Pace With the Coffee Snobs
Angus Maxwell, 27, works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He describes himself as an “installation and performance artist” and is a member of the Boom! Theater Company. He grew up in Seattle and wears a beard and wire-rim glasses.
27歲的安格斯·馬克斯韋爾(Angus Maxwell)在布魯克林的威廉斯堡工作。他自稱“裝置藝術和行爲藝術家”，是Boom劇團(Boom! Theater Company)的一員。他在西雅圖長大，留着鬍子，戴着金屬鏡架眼鏡。
He’s also a barista for what must be among the most discerning coffee clientele in the country, where boutique roasters like Blue Bottle and Toby’s Estate dominate the neighborhood. This week he brewed me a cup of “small lot” coffee — Nicaragua El Suyatal (“notes of hazelnut and caramel with a malty sweetness”) — while describing the distinctive flavor profiles of beans from Tanzania to Hawaii.
他也是咖啡師，爲美國最有鑑賞力的咖啡客戶服務。在美國，藍瓶咖啡館(Blue Bottle)和Toby’s Estate等精品咖啡館在社區占主導地位。本週，他爲我衝了一杯小份量咖啡——尼加拉瓜El Suyatal咖啡（“榛子、焦糖搭配麥芽的甜味”）——同時給我講述從坦桑尼亞到夏威夷的各種咖啡豆的獨特風味。
Mr. Maxwell doesn’t work for another artisanal upstart, but Starbucks. He’s the assistant store manager at the chain’s spacious year-old location on Williamsburg’s Seventh Street, and has worked for the company for nearly five years.
馬克斯韋爾所服務的手工咖啡新貴，正是星巴克(Starbucks)。他是這家咖啡連鎖店在威廉斯堡第七街的寬敞老店的副經理，已經爲這家公司工作了近五年。
Howard D. Schultz, Starbucks’s chief executive, told me this week that it’s people like Mr. Maxwell who explain the company’s success, which has dazzled investors. In a year in which the S.&P. 500-stock index has been flat, Starbucks shares have surged more than 50 percent, making it one of the market’s best performers. Last month, Starbucks reported record revenue of $4.9 billion and earnings of just under $1 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, both double-digit percentage gains over the previous year.
本週（11月29日至12月5日），星巴克的首席執行官霍華德·D·舒爾茨(Howard D. Schultz)對我說，這家公司之所以取得令投資者驚歎的成功，靠的正是馬克斯韋爾這樣的人。今年，標準普爾500( S.&P. 500)的股票指數平平，但是星巴克的股票卻猛漲50%多，成爲股市上表現最好的股票之一。上個月（11月），星巴克的收入達到歷史性新高49億美元，2015財政年第四季度的收入接近10億美元，同比上一年都獲得兩位數的增長。
“Our brand equity is built on our customers’ experience, and that depends on the quality of our people,” Mr. Schultz said. Starbucks prides itself on its care for “partners,” the noun it prefers to employees. It pays higher wages, offers health insurance even to part-time workers and pays college tuition for thousands of eligible employees. Starbucks employee turnover is relatively low, yielding benefits in efficiency and morale.
舒爾茨說：“我們的品牌價值建立在顧客體驗上，而那取決於我們員工的素質。”星巴克以對“合作伙伴”的關心爲豪，它所說的合作伙伴就是員工。它支付更高的工資，甚至給非全職員工提供健康保險，爲成千上萬符合條件的員工支付大學學費。星巴克的員工流動率相對較低，這對提高效率和士氣都有好處。
Still, the company’s labor practices have come under scrutiny for its inconsistent and inconvenient work hours. The Starbucks Workers Union mounts periodic protests, and in September some workers demonstrated over scheduling practices.
不過，這家公司因工作時間不連貫、不方便而遭到審查。星巴克工會(Starbucks Workers Union)經常進行抗議，今年9月，有些員工爲排班制度而進行遊行。
Mr. Schultz has also been criticized for his broader utopian ambitions. Earlier this year, Starbucks was derided for encouraging baristas to write the phrase “Race Together” on customers’ coffee cups to stir a discussion of racial issues. Mr. Schultz makes no apologies for speaking out on political and social issues. “From the beginning, we set out to build a company designed to balance profit with conscience, benevolence and social impact,” he told me.
舒爾茨宏大的烏托邦野心也遭到詬病。今年年初，星巴克鼓勵咖啡師在顧客的咖啡杯上寫“Race Together”，以激發關於種族問題的討論，因此遭到嘲笑。舒爾茨在爲政治和社會問題發聲方面從不道歉。他說：“從一開始，我們就決定創建一個在利潤與良知、善行、社會影響力之間保持平衡的公司。”
Starbucks’s strong financial performance seems all the more remarkable considering that the retail sector is struggling, and that the company had seemed to have lost its way when Mr. Schultz rejoined it in 2008. But last year, same-store comparable sales grew 8 percent, not just in growth markets like China and Japan, but in the United States. “They’ve defied everyone’s expectations, especially for a business this mature,” said Sara Senatore, who covers Starbucks as an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.
考慮到目前整個零售業在艱難掙扎，而且2008年舒爾茨再次加入該公司後似乎迷失了方向，所以這幾年星巴克強勁的經濟表現顯得更加引人注目。去年，同店可比銷售額增長了8%，而且不只是在中國和日本等成長型市場，還包括在美國。盛博公司(Sanford C. Bernstein)對星巴克進行分析的薩拉·塞納託雷(Sara Senatore)說：“他們超乎所有人的預料，尤其對這樣一個成熟的公司來說。”
And rather than cede the high end to competitors like Stumptown, Blue Bottle or Intelligentsia, Starbucks took them on. It unveiled last year the Roastery & Tasting Room, a 15,000-square-foot showplace in Seattle, which Mr. Schultz described as “a magic carpet ride of coffee, theater and romance.” Starbucks is developing the Roastery as a separate premium brand, and it is no less than “the future of the company,” Mr. Schultz said.
星巴克沒有把高端市場讓給樹墩城(Stumptown)、藍瓶或Intelligentsia咖啡館，而是與它們進行較量。去年，星巴克在西雅圖開設了一個佔地1.5萬平方英尺（約合1393平方米）的Roastery & Tasting Room展廳，舒爾茨形容它是“一張承載咖啡、戲劇和浪漫的魔毯”。舒爾茨說，星巴克想把Roastery發展成獨立的優質品牌，稱它是“這家公司的未來”。
It’s too soon to know if the rest of the world is ready for what several reviewers described as the Disneyland of coffee, where single cups brewed from rare beans can top $10 and baristas lead groups through “flights” of small-lot coffees, much like a wine tasting. But he said results had exceeded expectations and the company plans to roll out Roasteries in a few major markets, with New York high on its list.
現在還不好判斷世界上的其他地方是否願意接受這個被有些評論者稱爲咖啡迪士尼樂園的地方。在這裏，一杯用珍稀咖啡豆沖泡的咖啡售價可能高達10美元，咖啡師會帶領顧客進行類似品酒的小分量咖啡品嚐之旅。不過他說，顧客的接受程度已經超過預期，公司計劃在幾個主要市場擴張Roastery，紐約是首選地之一。
Starbucks locations like Williamsburg feature the Roastery’s “reserve” coffees, and the company is looking to open as many as 1,000 of these reserve cafes over the next few years. My cup of Nicaraguan was $4 for a 12-ounce cup, and Mr. Maxwell hand-brewed it using Starbucks’s trademarked Clover brewing system, featuring “innovative vacuum-press technology.” I don’t claim to be a connoisseur, but it was remarkably good. And for $4, it should be.“They have to invest and stay ahead of these trends and remind people they were there first,” said Ms. Senatore, who pointed out that Starbucks’s size gives it an edge in securing the best beans. “They can do what the smaller competitors can’t.”
威廉斯堡星巴克咖啡店的特色之一是Roastery的“珍藏”咖啡，這家公司計劃在未來幾年裏開設1000家這樣的珍藏咖啡店。我的那杯售價4美元的12盎司尼加拉瓜咖啡是馬克斯韋爾用星巴克標誌性的Clover沖泡系統親手沖泡的。這個系統的特色是“創新性真空壓縮技術”。我不敢自稱咖啡鑑賞家，但是這杯咖啡真的很棒，而且真的值4美元。塞納託雷說：“他們必須投資，站在時尚前沿，提醒人們他們也是領頭人。”她還指出，星巴克的規模讓它能得到最好的咖啡豆，“他們能做到小公司無法做到的事情”。
The luxury coffee market has become crowded, as a stroll through the Brooklyn neighborhood makes clear. But Mr. Schultz said Starbucks could happily coexist with other high-end roasters. “Williamsburg is emblematic of some of our most successful locations,” Mr. Schultz said. “Typically there’s some mild protest that people don’t want us to come in until after we get there and exceed expectations. The higher the quality coffee in any area, the better for us, because people get educated. New York City is competitive. London is competitive. Those are some of our best markets.”
奢侈咖啡市場已經十分擁擠，你在布魯克林轉一圈就知道了。不過，舒爾茨說，星巴克能夠與其他高端品牌愉快共存。他說：“威廉斯堡是我們最成功的分店之一。一般來講，我們會遭遇一些溫和的抗議，起初人們不想讓我們進駐，而我們進駐後，往往超越了他們的期待。一個地區的咖啡水準越高，對我們越有利，因爲那裏的顧客已經接受了一些教育。紐約市競爭激烈。倫敦競爭激烈。它們卻是我們最好的市場。”
Starbucks has also been a pioneer in mobile payments, something that many retailers are just beginning to adopt. With 16 million users and a generous rewards-loyalty program, the company’s phone app — which was unveiled just two years ago in some test markets — accounts for about 21 percent of all transactions at company-owned stores in the United States.
星巴克也是手機支付的先驅，很多零售商現在纔剛開始採用。兩年前，這家公司的手機應用程序開始在某些市場試用，現在有1600萬用戶。憑藉豐厚的忠誠回饋活動，手機支付額已經達到美國所有星巴克分店交易額的21%。
Starbucks has begun enabling its app users to order and pay in advance, and will also start offering delivery service. “For a company where people are put off by long lines or don’t have time to wait, this is a game changer,” said Ms. Senatore.
星巴克開始允許它的應用程序用戶提前點餐和支付，並將開始提供外賣服務。塞納託雷說：“星巴克的顧客不喜歡排長隊，也沒時間等待，所以這是一項重要革新。”
(McDonald’s, by comparison, introduced its mobile app just this summer. And notably, Starbucks’s stock market value is fast approaching that of McDonald’s — the burger giant’s market capitalization is $105 billion; Starbucks’s is $91 billion.)
（做個比較，今年夏天，麥當勞推出自己的手機應用程序。值得注意的是，星巴克的股票市值正快速接近麥當勞。這個漢堡巨頭的市值爲1050億美元，星巴克是910億美元。）
Wall Street analysts say that the fruits of both the Roastery concept and the enhanced mobile payments strategy could soon start to show up in the company’s financial results.
華爾街分析家稱，Roastery的概念和改進後的手機支付戰略將很快開始在該公司的財務業績上體現出來。
“You can come up with a pretty compelling argument for continued growth through 2020,” said Karen Holthouse, an analyst who covers fast food and casual restaurants for Goldman Sachs. “I don’t think there’s another company this size where you can say they’re going to grow earnings by 15 percent a year and be this confident about it.”
高盛集團(Goldman Sachs)的快餐和休閒餐館分析師卡倫·霍爾特霍斯(Karen Holthouse)說：“有充分的理由相信，這樣的增長會持續至2020年。我可不認爲還有此等規模的公司，令人信心十足地說能保持每年15%的增長。”
