Service-product bundle

Bundling is the act of building an added-value package around the products and services you sell. When you offer customers a bundle, you are giving them more reasons to come back to do business with your company. Every time a customer uses and is satisfied with one of the benefits in the bundle, he or she comes another step closer to becoming a customer for life.

Starbucks is a coffeehouse or a coffee shop shares some of the characteristics of a bar and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on providing coffee and tea. Food choices range from pastries and muffins to soups and sandwiches. The Starbucks combine them together, in Starbucks you can also buy the sandwiches as well as cakes. This idea is convenience for the office workers. And Starbucks also sell instant coffee in their shops or to some supermarkets. This are all their Service-product bundle.

Inventory Management

Inventory management is among the most important operations management responsibilities because inventory requires a great deal of capital and affects the delivery of goods to customers. Inventory management affects all business functions, including operations, marketing, accounting, information systems, and finance. Decisions related to managing inventory can be improved through the use of basic tools, such as bar coding, Ratio-frequency identification(RFID).

In retail, good service is paramount for customer loyalty. But when a supplier is knocking at the back door with a delivery during business hours, sometimes a retail clerk has to momentarily neglect a customer to receive it.

For the omnipresent coffeehouse chain Starbucks Corp., radio-frequency identification technology could help address those types of dilemmas. Sean Dettloff, manager for partner and asset protection at Starbucks, told attendees at the national Cargo Security Council Radio Frequency Identification conference Monday in Long Beach, Calif., that the company is considering using Radio-frequency identification technology RFID to help with deliveries.

But there are challenges with this new delivery process, including managing physical security and inventory control, so that delivery people "don't walk out with as much stuff as they dropped off," Dettloff says. "So we envision an RFID license-plate signature," he says, that a supplier would use to deliver goods. Using a card, the supplier would gain access to an RFID-enabled system that records the time, disables the alarm, and confirms a supplier's identity before it unlocks the door and lets the person in. Ideally, the system also would record the inventory that's being delivered. "That's not going to happen tomorrow," Dettloff says. "But you can't get the projects going until you develop these ideas."

Besides, it is also important to realize how Starbucks records their inventory on their consolidated financial statements. Since they sell products, not services, they have a large inventory, which they record at the lower of cost or market. It is also crucial how a firm records and depreciates its inventory, and can give investors wrong information if not done correctly.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/RFID/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=54800648

Introduction

Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee. Starbucks is the largest Coffeehouse Company in the world. It is also a coffeehouse chain. There are 17,133 stores in about 49 countries, which include about 11,068 in the United States, more than 800 in Japan and about 1,000 in Canada. Starbucks sells espresso based hot drinks, brewed coffee, coffee beans, other hot and cold drinks, salads, hot and cold sandwiches and Panini, pastries, and other nacks. They also sell items such as mugs and tumblers. The company also markets books, music, and film through the Starbucks Entertainment division. Many of the products that are sold in the company are seasonal or specific depending on the location of the store. They also offer coffee and Starbucks ice-cream at grocery stores.