Question

How would you define the market(s) that Starbucks operates in?

Answer 1

Starbucks is an American coffee company and a coffee retail chain . Although Starbucks may seem a monopoly in coffee house chains due to its popularity , quality , extent etc . But it has strong competitors world wide as for example : Gloria Jean's coffee , Caribou coffee etc . Although in 2015 Starbucks was found to be the biggest coffee house chain worldwide based on number of stores but still there are strong competitors .

So this market can be defined as monopolistically competitive market . Each coffee chain sells almost the same coffee with slight difference in quality and process of production . The main difference occurs due to advertising techniques and branding etc .