Starbucks: The café chain positions itself as an experience provider rather than just a coffee seller, creating a "third place" for socializing beyond home and work. No matter where in the world you enter a Starbucks café, you will find a consistently pleasant and welcoming atmosphere. But you can't achieve that simply by telling your staff to be warm and friendly.

Starbucks' culture is so strong because it's closely tied to the company's unique capabilities. The atmosphere of Starbucks stores isn't just created by the design and decor – it's created because the people behind the counter understand how their work fits into a common goal and know how to achieve great things together without having to follow a script.

Starbucks has spent many years developing a relationship-based, employee-centered approach that encourages employees to form close bonds with one another. Even part-time employees (in the U.S.), called "partners" rather than employees, receive stock options and health insurance. At the height of the global financial crisis, when other companies were cutting labor costs wherever they could, Starbucks invested in employee training, including coffee tastings and courses that eventually earned college credit. Former company president Howard Behar believed that employees who felt cared for would also care for their customers. One former Starbucks employee noted, "Nobody at Starbucks ever ordered anyone to do anything. It was always, 'Would you do me a favor?' Or something like that."

In this case study, we examine Starbucks' business practices, some of which are controversial, including tax avoidance, allegations of irresponsible marketing, and issues related to labor and human rights.

Below you will find an overview of Starbucks’ Code of Conduct.

Coffee: Starbucks believes in sourcing the best coffee beans and doing its part to improve the lives of its coffee farmers.

Partner: Starbucks believes that everyone can be who they are. That's why the company's goal is to treat people with dignity and respect.

Customers: Starbucks' goal is to connect with customers and put them in a good mood. It's about more than just making great coffee!

Business: The sense of belonging is what makes Starbucks cafes special. It's a place where people can come to escape from everyday life and just be with their friends.

Neighborhood: Every Starbucks store is part of a community. They take responsibility to be a good neighbor. They want to be part of the community at every location.

Shareholders: Starbucks knows that its success is due to the performance it delivers in each of these key areas.

Ethical principles
From the perspective of utilitarian utility theory, Starbucks' actions are considered unethical or ethical.

Utilitarian advantages
According to utilitarian utility theory, Starbucks' actions are unethical because they cause more harm than good to society.
Small coffee retailers offer more to the people in the cities where they are located than Starbucks because these small local coffee retailers offer their coffee at reasonable prices. People would prefer a reasonably priced coffee to Starbucks' overpriced coffee. Even though there may be some people who would rather go to Starbucks than their small coffee retailer, the majority of people still enjoy their local coffee (Katie, 2013).

In order to drive other coffee retailers out of business, Starbucks will resort to buying up the coffee retailers and flooding the neighborhoods with new Starbucks stores, cannibalizing the sales of existing Starbucks stores (Katie, 2013). This move does not serve Starbucks' interest.

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