How Starbucks has picked up steam again
A year ago, the outlook for Starbucks Corp. seemed as flat as a day-old latte.
The giant coffee chain's stock essentially had been dead money for three years running, trading around $52 a share just as it had in mid-2015, as investors saw little to cheer about.
Starbucks' annual same-store sales growth - or sales at stores open at least a year, a key retail metric - had tumbled to 2% from 7% in that span. Same-store sales in China alone, where Starbucks has been aggressively opening thousands of outlets, fell slightly during last year's spring quarter as competition grew.
And Starbucks' management - led by Chief Executive Kevin Johnson, who took over two years ago from longtime CEO Howard
