Starbucks Coffee Just Went Up 9 Cents Per Cup. The Head Barista In Charge Sits Down For An Interview.

Starbucks Chief Executive Jim Donald recently sat down with SeattlePI.com to talk about recent developments for the world’s biggest coffee chain.

Below are a few excerpts:

Q: The company expects to open another 2,600 stores in the 2008 fiscal year. Where will most of that growth occur?

A: All over. … What we’re doing in the U.S. and internationally is looking at filling in markets. I can’t really get specific, but we are filling in markets throughout these areas that are continuing to tell us we need more Starbucks stores. … China will be a big emphasis, as well as filling in the U.K., Japan and Canada.

Q: Starbucks raised prices by an average of 9 cents Tuesday, even though Chairman Howard Schultz said May 3 that there were no plans to raise prices. Why was there a price boost, and what has been the response from consumers?

A: When Howard said that, we had no clue we would be looking at 100 percent increase in dairy (cost). …(Tuesday) there was a price increase of about 3 percent. It has only been one day, but we are not hearing from our customers. We are explaining to our customers about the cost of dairy and other commodities and the fuel arena is creating this. They are seeing it in restaurants and grocery stores. Read.