From the famed inaugural Seattle store in the 70s to 32,000 stores spanning 80 countries 50 years later , we chart five decades of Starbucks Corporation

Stores : 4 Stores : 55

Stores : 2,498

Starbucks was born in 1971 in Seattle by three friends from the University of San Francisco , all instructed in the art of roasting by gourmet coffee company Peet ’ s founder . They sold Peet ’ s roasted beans and grinders . Branding was inspired by nautical mythology , the logo a mermaid ( though brown , not green ) and the name taken from Herman Melville ’ s Moby-Dick . Starbucks moved to its second location in 1977 , Seattle ’ s famed Pike Place Market , where the store with the original brown logo remains .

In 1982 , after Starbucks opened its fifth store , featuring the first Starbucks bar and selling brewed coffee , Howard Schultz joins as director of marketing and provides coffee to fine restaurants and espresso bars . Following a trip to Milan , where he was inspired by the city ’ s coffee bars , Schultz tried to convince Starbucks to test the coffeehouse concept in downtown Seattle . They decline and Schultz opened his own coffee bar Il Giornale in 1985 using Starbucks beans . In 1987 , he acquires Starbucks for US $ 3.8m , becoming CEO of Starbucks Corporations .

Starbucks becomes the first privately owned US company to offer a stock option program and completes its initial IPO in 1992 . The 90s saw a 45-fold increase in store openings , from 55 to 2,498 , including debuting its first online store , first licensed airport store ( Seattle ), first drive-through location , and first store outside of the US ( Japan in 96 ) before rolling out global stores in the UK , Malaysia , New Zealand , Thailand , China , Kuwait , and Lebanon , among others .

20 June 2021