What You Should Know about Starbucks

An incredibly popular American coffee company and coffeehouse chain, Starbucks Corporation was founded in Seattle, Washington, in 1971. Currently it operates about 24 thousand locations in the U.S., Canada, China, Japan and many other countries.

Starbucks is known to promote darkly roasted coffee. Despite the fact that most coffee makers shifted to serving hand-made coffee of lighter roast, Starbucks continues to rely on automated espresso machines as they are claimed to be more efficient and safer to use.

The current CEO of Starbucks Corporation is Howard Schultz but he is expected to leave the office in April 2017. Then the company will be headed by Kevin Johnson.

Starbucks often runs promo offers and provides great discounts on a wide range of its products. To benefit from those deals and save up to 50% or even more make sure you use Starbucks promo codes while making a purchase.

History

The first Starbucks location opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 31, 1971.The venture was started by three friends who first met when studying at the University of San Francisco: writer Gordon Bowker, English teacher Jerry Baldwin and history teacher Zev Siegl. The company was named after the chief mate in the book "Moby-Dick": Starbuck.

The first Starbucks store that operated in Seattle from 1971-1976 offered only roasted whole coffee beans rather than brewed coffee. Starbucks first went into black in the early 1980s and its success continued when the company entered the California market in the early 1990s. By 1986, the company had run six stores in Seattle and started to sell espresso coffee (see page "Top Types of Coffee" ).

In 1987, Starbucks founders sold their business to an ex-manager Howard Schultz. The company experienced a rapid growth and in the same year it opened its first locations outside Seattle at Waterfront Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Chicago, Illinois. In two years, there were as many as 46 stores across the Northwest and Midwest.

Starbucks entered the stock market in 1992, generating the revenue of US$73.5 million and operating 140 locations.

Starbucks went international in 1996 and its first location outside North America was in Tokyo. In 2002, Starbucks entered the Latin America market, then in 2003 it opened its first store in South America in Lima, Peru, and in 2007 in Russia.

Now overseas locations represent one-third of its stores. Only in Mexico the company operated more than 500 locations and up to 850 will be opened by 2018.

In 1999, Starbucks launched Starbucks cafes.

Starbucks made a number of acquisitions. In April 2003, Starbucks purchased Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia from AFC Enterprises for $72m and in September 2006 it bought most locations of the Oregon-based Coffee People chain. All the newly acquired locations were converted to Starbucks.

In 2012, Starbucks purchased Teavana for US$620 million in cash.

In February 2016, Starbucks announced about its plans to open locations in Italy, which will be its 24th market in Europe. The first location is expected to open in Milan by 2017.

Products

Starbucks locations offer a wide range of hot and cold drinks, including whole-bean coffee, microground instant coffee or VIA, espresso, caffe latte, etc. In addition to serving coffee based drinks Starbucks offers Teavana teas, Evolution Fresh juices, Frappuccino beverages. Plus there are La Boulange pastries and snacks like chips and crackers offered at some locations. Some stores may also offer seasonal products as well, such as fall launch of the Pumpkin Spice Latte. In a number of stores customers can purchase pre-packaged foods, sandwiches, and drinkware (Historical reference about Sandwich). In "Starbucks Evenings" customers can order beer, wine, along with starters. Starbucks-brand coffee, ice cream, and bottled cold coffee drinks can be purchased at grocery stores as well. Since 2012, Starbucks has been selling a line of iced fruit flavored Starbucks Refresher drinks with an extract from green arabica coffee beans. The beverages are free from coffee flavor. Among the most recent products by Starbucks are "Fizzio", a sort of soda, launched in 2014, and coconut milk which the company started producing in 2015.

Locations

Starbucks is a Seattle based company with locations in 72 countries and territories. There are also independently operated Starbucks locations in stores like Ahold Delhaize, Barnes & Noble, Target, Tom Thumb. Starbucks features automated systems with as many as 280 possible drink options to choose from. These systems come with touchscreens and enable customers to play games while waiting for the order.

Environmental and Social Policies

Starbuck takes environmental sustainability serious. In 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranked the company No.15 on its list of Top 25 Green Power Partners for purchases of renewable energy.

In 2009, Starbucks stores in Canada and the U.S. installed a new water saving system that meets government health standards and saves up to 150 U.S. gal (570 l) of water daily in each store. In 2006 Starbucks started using 10% recycled paper in its beverage cups.

In 2008 Starbucks partnered with Conservation International to fund the initiatives that help protect the natural environment of coffee-growing communities in Mexico and Indonesia.

Due to partnership with the Food Donation Connection and Feeding America Starbucks has been donating leftover pastries to local food banks since 2010. Participating in the program FoodShare the company plans to donate more than 50 million meals during the next five years.