History
Starbucks Coffee Company was founded in 1971 by three coffee aficionados. Starbucks, named after the coffee-loving first mate in Moby Dick, opened its first store in Seattle’s Pike Place Public Market. During this time, most coffee was purchased in a can directly from supermarket shelves. Starbucks’ concept of selling fresh-roasted whole beans in a specialty store was a revolutionary idea.
In 1987, Howard Schultz, a former Starbucks employee, acquired the company. When Schultz first joined Starbucks in the early 1980s as director of retail operations, Starbucks was a local, highly respected roaster and retailer of whole bean and ground coffees. A business trip to Milan’s famous coffee shops in 1983 opened Schultz’s eyes to the rich tradition of the espresso beverage. Schultz recalls, “What I saw was the unique relationship that the Italian people had with the ubiquitous coffee bars around Italy. People used the local coffee bar as the third place from home and work. What I wanted to try and do was re-create that in North America.”1 Inspired by the Italian espresso bars, Schultz convinced executives to have Starbucks’ stores serve coffee by the cup. And the rest is history! The company has seen phenomenal growth from 17 coffee outlets in Seattle almost 15 years back to 5689 shops in around 28 countries worldwide. Starbucks went public in 1993 and has done extremely well in turning an everyday beverage into a premium product. The green and white mermaid logo is widely recognized; the brand is defined by not only its products, but also by attitude. Business Week’s most recent survey (2002) of the top global brands reported Starbucks as one of the fastest growing brands. It is all about the Starbucks experience, the atmosp ...