Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. As of 2018, the company operates 28,218[2] locations worldwide.
Starbucks is considered the main representative of "second wave coffee", initially distinguishing itself from other coffee-serving venues in the US by taste, quality, and customer experience while popularizing darkly roasted coffee.[5] Since the 2000s, third wave coffee makers have targeted quality-minded coffee drinkers with hand-made coffee based on lighter roasts, while Starbucks nowadays uses automated espresso machines for efficiency and safety reasons.[5][6]
Starbucks locations serve hot and cold drinks, whole-bean coffee, microground instant coffee known as VIA, espresso, caffe latte, full- and loose-leaf teas including Teavana tea products,[7] Evolution Fresh juices, Frappuccino beverages, La Boulange pastries, and snacks including items such as chips and crackers; some offerings (including their annual fall launch of the Pumpkin Spice Latte) are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store. Many stores sell pre-packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and drinkware including mugs and tumblers; select "Starbucks Evenings" locations offer beer, wine, and appetizers.[8] Starbucks-brand coffee, ice cream, and bottled cold coffee drinks are also sold at grocery stores.
Starbucks first became profitable in Seattle in the early 1980s.[9] Despite an initial economic downturn with its expansion into the Midwest and British Columbia in the late 1980s,[10] the company experienced revitalized prosperity with its entry into California in the early 1990s.[11] The first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo in 1996; overseas properties now constitute almost one-third of its stores.[12] The company opened an average of two new locations daily between 1987 and 2007.[13]
On December 1, 2016, Howard Schultz announced he would resign as CEO effective April 2017 and would be replaced by Kevin Johnson. Johnson assumed the role of CEO on April 3, 2017,[14] and Howard Schultz retired to become Chairman Emeritus effective June 26, 2018.[15]
Type Public
Products
Coffee beverages•smoothies•tea•baked•goods•sandwiches
Number of employees
238,000[4] (2017)
Subsidiaries
Starbucks Coffee Company•Ethos Water•Evolution Fresh•Hear Music•La Boulange Bakery•Seattle's Best Coffee•Teavana•Torrefazione Italia
Website starbucks.com
The first Starbucks opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 31, 1971,[16] by three partners who met while they were students at the University of San Francisco:[17] English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker were inspired to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment by coffee roasting entrepreneur Alfred Peet after he taught them his style of roasting beans.[18] The company took the name of the chief mate in the book Moby-Dick: Starbuck, after considering "Cargo House" and "Pequod".[19] Bowker recalls that Terry Heckler, with whom Bowker owned an advertising agency, thought words beginning with "st" were powerful. The founders brainstormed a list of words beginning with "st". Someone pulled out an old mining map of the Cascade Range and saw a mining town named "Starbo", which immediately put Bowker in mind of the character "Starbuck". Bowker said, "Moby-Dick didn't have anything to do with Starbucks directly; it was only coincidental that the sound seemed to make sense."[20]
The first Starbucks store was located in Seattle at 2000 Western Avenue from 1971–1976. This cafe was later moved to 1912 Pike Place; never to be relocated again.[21] During this time, the company only sold roasted whole coffee beans and did not yet brew coffee to sell.[22] The only brewed coffee served in the store were free samples. During their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee beans from Peet's, then began buying directly from growers.
In 1994, Starbucks bought The Coffee Connection, gaining the rights to use, make, market, and sell the "Frappuccino" beverage.[74] The beverage was introduced under the Starbucks name in 1995 and as of 2012, Starbucks had annual Frappuccinos sales of over $2 billion.[74]
The company began a "skinny" line of drinks in 2008, offering lower-calorie and sugar-free versions of the company's offered drinks that use skim milk, and can be sweetened by a choice of "natural" sweeteners (such as raw sugar, agave syrup, or honey), artificial sweeteners (such as Sweet'N Low, Splenda, Equal), or one of the company's sugar-free syrup flavors.[75][76] Starbucks stopped using milk originating from rBGH-treated cows in 2007.[77]
In June 2009, the company announced that it would be overhauling its menu and selling salads and baked goods without high fructose corn syrup or artificial ingredients.[78] This move was expected to attract health- and cost-conscious consumers and will not affect prices.[78]
Starbucks introduced a new line of instant coffee packets, called VIA "Ready Brew", in March 2009. It was first unveiled in New York City with subsequent testing of the product also in Seattle, Chicago, and London. The first two VIA flavors include Italian Roast and Colombia, which were then rolled out in October 2009, across the U.S. and Canada with Starbucks stores promoting the product with a blind "taste challenge" of the instant versus fresh roast, in which many people could not tell the difference between the instant and fresh brewed coffee. Analysts[who?] speculated that by introducing instant coffee, Starbucks would devalue its own brand.[79]
Starbucks began selling beer and wine at some US stores in 2010. As of April 2012, it is available at seven locations and others have applied for licenses.[80]
In 2011, Starbucks introduced its largest cup size, the Trenta, which can hold 31 US fluid ounces (920 ml).[81] In September 2012, Starbucks announced the Verismo, a consumer-grade single-serve coffee machine that uses sealed plastic cups of coffee grounds, and a "milk pod" for lattes.[82]
On November 10, 2011, Starbucks Corporation announced that it had bought juice company Evolution Fresh for $30 million in cash and planned to start a chain of juice bars starting in around middle of 2012, venturing into territory staked out by Jamba Inc. Its first store released in San Bernardino, California and plans for a store in San Francisco were to be launched in early 2013.[83]
In 2012, Starbucks began selling a line of iced Starbucks Refresher beverages that contain an extract from green arabica coffee beans. The beverages are fruit flavored and contain caffeine but advertised as having no coffee flavor. Starbucks' green coffee extraction process involves soaking the beans in water.[84]
On June 25, 2013, Starbucks began to post calorie counts on menus for drinks and pastries in all of their U.S. stores.[85]
In 2014, Starbucks began producing their own line of "handcrafted" sodas, dubbed "Fizzio".[86]
In 2015, Starbucks began serving coconut milk as an alternative to dairy and soy.[87]
In March 2017, Starbucks announced to launch limited-edition of two new specialty drinks made from beans aged in whiskey barrels at its Seattle roastery.[88] Starbucks' barrel-aged coffee will be sold with a small batch of unroasted Starbucks Reserve Sulawesi beans, which are then hand-scooped into whiskey barrels from Washington D.C.[89]
Contents
1 History
1.1 Founding
1.2 Sale and expansion
1.3 Expansion to new markets and products
2 Corporate governance
3 Products
3.1 Tea
3.2 Coffee quality
3.3 Other products
4 Locations
4.1 Current
4.2 Expansion
4.3 Former
4.4 Unbranded stores
4.5 Licensed and franchise operations
4.6 Automated locations
4.7 Facilities
5 Advertising
5.1 Logo
5.2 Partnerships
6 Parodies and infringements
7 Environmental and social policies
7.1 Environmental impact
7.1.1 Recycling
7.2 Farmer equity practices
7.3 Fair trade
7.4 Ethos water
7.5 Food bank donations
7.6 2020 Plastic Straw Ban
8 Controversies
8.1 Boycotts
8.2 Exclusion of Anti-Defamation League from anti-bias training
9 Music, film, and television
10 See also
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links