00:00In 2008, Starbucks was just seven months away from total insolvency.
00:05Their stock had plummeted over 40 percent, and the brand was officially dying.
00:10Founder Howard Schultz returned as CEO to find a disaster.
00:15He famously called their rapid expansion a carcinogen that had killed the company's soul.
00:20The stores no longer felt like coffee shops.
00:23They smelled like burnt breakfast sandwiches instead of fresh roasted beans.
00:27Quality had been traded for speed, and customers were ditching them for cheaper options.
00:32On February 26, 2008, Schultz did the unthinkable.
00:37He shut down all 7,100 U.S. stores simultaneously for three hours.
00:43It cost the company $6 million in lost sales in a single afternoon.
00:47Why?
00:48To retrain 135,000 baristas on the art of espresso.
00:52He chose to stop the machines, remove the smelly food, and refocus on the third-place experience.
00:59It worked.
01:00By 2010, profits tripled, and Starbucks staged the greatest comeback in food history.
01:06They remain a global giant because they learned that sometimes you have to shut your doors to save your brand.
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