Howard Schultz

Starbucks Corp. said Monday that it was returning its chairman, Howard Schultz, to the chief executive's job to lead a major restructuring initiative, replacing Jim Donald. The move, coupled with plans to open new U.S. stores at a slower pace, comes as the world's largest chain of coffeehouses has seen its stock plummet 50% over the last year amid declining traffic in its domestic stores. Starbucks' announcement after regular markets closed sent the company's shares up $1.

Back in 1987, when coffee entrepreneur Howard Schultz and a group of Seattle investors purchased Starbucks, the chain had just 11 stores. Now it has more than 16,000 spread across 44 countries. Schultz, Starbucks' chief executive, is credited with launching that tremendous growth in the chain, and in the process creating the mass-market gourmet coffee business in the United States. Now there's either a Starbucks or a competitor in nearly every shopping mall or strip center.

Howard Schultz, the founder and chairman of Starbucks Corp., told executives at the world's biggest coffee chain that the company's expansion to 13,000 stores was "watering down" its brand. Decisions to streamline store design, for example, might be more efficient and financially responsible, Schultz wrote in a Feb. 14 memo to Chief Executive Jim Donald and other managers.

Chairman Howard Schultz said Wednesday that Starbucks Corp. could add 10,000 coffee shops in the next four years, knocking down speculation that he would slow the chain's expansion. Starbucks, founded in 1971, will double in size within five years, Schultz said at the annual meeting in the company's hometown of Seattle. Starbucks had 13,168 outlets at the end of 2006. Schultz wrote a memo in February that said service had deteriorated and the Starbucks brand was being watered down.

The team store just a few steps from the silenced arena is three-quarters empty, barren of anything SuperSonics related except for a few logos affixed to the exterior. Outside the former practice facility, the neighborhood cat still comes to sip water out of a basketball-painted bowl as one lonely employee continues watch over the front desk. Bitter fans are walking around Seattle's neighborhoods wearing shirts bearing the Sonics logo surrounded by expletives directed at one-time team owner and Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz.

Howard Schultz, the chairman and chief executive of Starbucks Corp., did not receive a bonus last year for the second year in a row as the iconic coffee chain closed more than 600 stores and reported sliding sales amid a deepening recession. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Schultz -- who reclaimed the CEO title in January last year -- received compensation valued by the company at about $9.7 million in fiscal 2008. That was about 23% less than the $12.6 million he received in fiscal 2007.

One of the dividends of owning stock in the Ben & Jerry's Homemade ice cream company is being invited to the annual stockholder's meeting. This gives you an excuse to eat lots of ice cream, check out Ben & Jerry's 40-foot solarized stage bus and then spend two days listening to the Band, Bo Diddley, Michelle Shocked and the Kwanzaa Music Workshop Performance, among many other acts, play at the Ben & Jerry's One World One Heart festival. You also get to attend the financial meeting.