Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) has admittedly slothed through a tough, 12-month period. Its stock has struggled and suffered from the $39 level last November to where it sits now at $26.

But great growth stories tend to hit a difficult year or two in their development, only to emerge as even better stories. Starbucks will come through this challenging period as a better and more experienced company. Management, from chairman and founder Howard Schultz, to store-level managers are finding their footing. Yes, Starbucks has temporarily taken a back seat as McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) has captured a lot of terrific coffee headlines -- but McDonald's is not Starbucks.

One dominating trait of successful growth companies is the development of a solid and contagious culture. Starbucks has a great and enviable culture; a culture fostered by Schultz, who considers all Starbucks staff "partners" rather than employees. At last count, Starbucks has 145,000 partners operating its 12,000 units globally. One such partner made a huge impression on me yesterday. She did not know that I write for BloggingStocks, she was just being herself. It's worth repeating and if most of the partners are like her, Starbucks will once again become a great growth story. Here's the story.