Starbucks

Starbucks is an American multinational chain of coffee shops serving hot and cold coffee drinks, teas, Frappucino blended beverages, cold drinks, and various food items. Founded initially as a roaster and retailer of specialty coffee beans in 1971, the company switched in 1984 to the coffeehouse concept it is known for today. With more than 36,000 stores and six roasteries worldwide as of 2022, Starbucks is the largest coffee chain in the world.

Starbucks was founded in Seattle in 1971 by Gerald Baldwin, Gordon Bowker, and Zev Siegl, three friends who met at the University of San Francisco. The original shop opened as a specialty coffee bean roastery and retailer located in Seattle's Pike Place market. Originally, Siegl was Starbucks' only paid employee, who scooped beans for customers, while the other two cofounders kept their day jobs.

The Starbucks founders

Future CEO Howard Schultz joined Starbucks as director of retail operations and marketing in 1982 after visiting the coffee shop from New York. After a 1983 trip to Italy, Schultz approached the owners of Starbucks about switching the shop over to a coffeehouse modeled after the espresso bars he saw in Milan. Schultz's experiment proved to be successful, which led him to found Il Giornale, a company that sold Starbucks' espresso drinks and beans in 1985. In 1987, Il Giornale acquired Starbucks' assets with the backing of local investors and changed its name to Starbucks Corporation. By that time, the company had grown to seventeen locations, including a store in Chicago and its first store outside of the United States in Vancouver, Canada.

Starbucks continued growing under Schultz, expanding its Seattle headquarters in 1990 and completing its IPO in 1992 with 165 stores worldwide. After this, Starbucks saw a period of rapid expansion, growing to 3,501 stores by the year 2000, 16,858 by 2010, and 32,938 by 2020.