Starbucks Coffee Dairy Supplier

Post Reply
marshd1000
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 587
Joined: March 2nd, 2009, 1:46 pm
Been thanked: 12 times
Status: Offline

Starbucks Coffee Dairy Supplier

Post by marshd1000 »

From 2002 to 2004, I was actually a barista at a corporately owned Starbucks. One thing I noticed is that we used Safeway's Lucerne dairy products. I know that in the licensed concept stores, that weren't Safeway/Albertsons, if it was retailer like Target or Kroger, the milk would be one of their banner brands. But I am wondering, in the areas that did not have Lucerne available, because there were no Safeway owned stores nearby (pre merger with ABS), did they still use Lucerne? Also did they or do they still use Lucerne in Canada (which is now owned by Agropur but licensed by Sobeys)? I have to admit, I have only paid attention to this here in the Northwest. Or is the use of Lucerne only in the Northwest? Also if the licensed concept store is operated by a company like Host Marriott, do they use Lucerne or some other dairy?

One last interesting Lucerne and Starbucks connection. Starbucks' Ethos Water was bottled in California. The worsening of the drought there ended that. But when it was still bottled in California, it said it was bottled by Lucerne Foods. I thought that was interesting as it was funny to be in the Kroger owned QFC by my house and saw a stealth "Lucerne" product in their Starbucks!
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Starbucks Coffee Dairy Supplier

Post by Alpha8472 »

Jim Donald was the President of Starbucks North America in 2002. He was the former President of Safeway's Eastern Division from 1994-1996. He probably was the one that got Lucerne into Starbucks stores at least for some regions of the U.S. Starbucks used many different regional suppliers for products, so I am not sure which regions used Lucerne and which ones did not. Northern California and Southern California used Lucerne as of last year. However, apparently I've heard some distant cities in Northern California use Clover milk due to being out of range of Lucerne.

He became CEO of all of Starbucks before being asked to step down in 2008.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Starbucks Coffee Dairy Supplier

Post by storewanderer »

I have seen all Lucerne in west coast corporate Starbucks.

In the licensed stores it is whatever the licensee uses. I have never seen Lucerne at a licensed Starbucks. At a Target, it is whatever dairy brand Target carries. At an airport, it is whatever dairy brand HMS Host uses for the rest of its concessions. At a casino, it is whatever dairy brand the casino uses for the rest of its food and beverage outlets.

A good number of the Clover items (specifically the ones sold by Safeway) are actually produced at Safeway's dairy plant so it is entirely possible even the Starbucks that are using Clover are still using stuff produced by Safeway. The Clover stuff sold at Whole Foods is still produced at Clover's own dairy.
pseudo3d
Posts: 3851
Joined: November 12th, 2015, 7:01 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 77 times
Status: Offline

Re: Starbucks Coffee Dairy Supplier

Post by pseudo3d »

Safeway has very little presence in Texas, so I'll be surprised if they do use Lucerne in non-Safeway areas. I'll have to check next time I'm out and about. :P
SamSpade
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1568
Joined: September 13th, 2015, 4:39 pm
Has thanked: 374 times
Been thanked: 57 times
Status: Offline

Re: Starbucks Coffee Dairy Supplier

Post by SamSpade »

I believe the key for Starbucks is RBST free milk, so the local dairy chain may vary. Of course, at this point, Kroger dairies went RBST free a few years ago and at least in the NW most of the regional dairies already were.

(USDA disclosure - no difference has been found in milk from cows given RBST or not). :roll:
Post Reply