Inventories

9 Months Ended

Jul. 03, 2011

Inventories

Inventories

Note 5: Inventories (in millions)

	July 3, 2011		Oct 3, 2010		June 27, 2010
Coffee:
Unroasted	$	423.3	$	238.3	$	233.7
Roasted		190.5		95.1		85.8
Other merchandise held for sale		116.0		115.6		81.8
Packaging and other supplies		126.9		94.3		95.3
Total	$	856.7	$	543.3	$	496.6

Inventory levels vary due to seasonality driven primarily by the holiday season, commodity market supply and price variations, and changes in our use of fixed-price and price-to-be-fixed coffee contracts.

As of July 3, 2011, we had committed to purchasing green coffee totaling $635 million under fixed-price contracts and an estimated $238 million under price-to-be-fixed contracts. Price-to-be-fixed contracts are purchase commitments whereby the quality, quantity, delivery period, and other negotiated terms are agreed upon, but the date at which the base "C" coffee commodity price component will be fixed has not yet been established. For these types of contracts, either Starbucks or the seller has the option to "fix" the base "C" coffee commodity price prior to the delivery date. Until prices are fixed, we estimate the total cost of these purchase commitments. We believe, based on relationships established with our suppliers in the past, the risk of non-delivery on these purchase commitments is remote.