Starbucks’ Howard Schultz is not running for president

New York -- Starbucks Corp. founder and CEO — and currently Time Magazine cover boy — Howard Schultz has lots of opinions about politics and the national agenda, but he is not interested in running for president in 2016.



“I don’t think that’s a solution. I don’t think it ends well,” Schultz told Time in a wide-ranging interview its Feb. 16 edition.



In the article, Schultz describes the firm’s strategy to move up market with its new Reserve store format, and opens up about his personal history that has shaped his beliefs on issues ranging from the working poor to race relations.



Some highlights from the story:



On how businesses should operate in America: “I think the private sector simply has to take a larger role than they have in the past. Our responsibility goes beyond the P&L and our stock price…. If half the country or at least a third of the country doesn’t have the same opportunities as the rest going forward, then the country won’t survive. That’s not socialism.”



On Starbucks’ sales figures from its stores nationwide: “We have a lens on almost every community in America…. At 4:30 in the morning, I wake up and see the numbers of basically every store from yesterday.”



Over the past few years, says Schultz, they’ve pointed to a “fractured level of trust and confidence” that he attributes in large part to a sense that government is no longer functional and that no one is looking out for the welfare of the middle and working classes.”



On growing up while struggling with poverty in the housing projects of Canarsie, Brooklyn: “When you say you went to Canarsie High School, you get a whole new level of street cred!”