To build the business, what other ventures are in store for Starbucks in Japan?
We’re beginning an early-on expedition on where and when we’re going to roast coffee in Asia and/or Japan. There’s probably more economically efficient places [than Japan]. But [costs] probably won’t be the primary decision-making criteria. If we do roast here, it’ll mainly be because of the ability to customize unique products and package sizes for the Japanese market, given how much growth we believe there’s going to be here for us. And given the existing ready-to-drink coffee market in Japan, at some point in the future we’ll have the opportunity to leverage [our ready-to-drink U.S.] products and introduce them here. There are opportunities to extend and develop new product lines that can be broad-based and maybe even different than in the U.S. Q: How serious is Starbucks about entering the music industry? A: The in-store music has always been a big part of the environment we try to create, but we had never considered selling it until about 10 years ago. A manager of a retail Starbu
