Starbucks Boom

In 1971, Starbucks was founded by three ingenious businessmen in Seattle, Washington. By 1981, the franchise was slowly progressing and was managing four retail stores. As a result of sending Starbucks marketing consultant, Howard Schultz, to Italy, the Italian coffee bar style shop was born in Seattle. With its sixth store, Starbucks introduced espresso drinks with a response of popularity. Within two months, the store became more successful than their other whole bean locations. At 17 stores in 1987, Starbucks’ popularity prompted the retail to expand to Chicago, Vancouver, and Portland. A strong executive management team was put together to help the growth of Starbucks stores. By the year 1991, Starbucks expanded into airports, as well as mail-order catalogues all over California with 100 stores. Finally in 1992, Starbucks went public.

In the next five years, Starbucks went international and opened stores all around the United States, Japan, and Singapore. Starbucks then began serving their coffee among airplanes, sold bottled coffee through PepsiCo, ice cream through Dreyers, as well as music through Apple. Starbucks products are made available in all places, without the customer even having to be in a Starbucks coffee shop. Deals with well-known brands helped Starbucks’ popularity soar and in the year 2000, Starbucks ranked as the fastest growing coffee brand.