Sure - but there was a time when all you could buy was Budweiser, Miller, Coors, Schlitz and Hamm's (I need to find that article, too). Starbuck's exists for the same reason - it's the coffee that's always about right. But fuckin' A if it weren't for Starbuck's there'd be no Caribou Coffee (better), Coffee Bean (better), Tully's (better and owned outright by Starbucks!) or the million and one independent shops. When I was growing up there was nowhere to get a cup of coffee except the gas station. But by the time I was in 10th grade there was a little cafe and by the time I was a sophomore in college there was a bloody Starbuck's and by the time I graduated there were eight cafes in my home town of 20,000 people.
Nope, Tully's is owned outright by Keurig Green Mountain.
My bad. You're right. Starbuck's owns SBC which has always been shit.