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While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Starbucks, American company that is the largest coffeehouse chain in the world. Its headquarters are in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks was founded by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker, and Zev Siegl, opening its first store in 1971 near the historic Pike Place Market in Seattle. Alfred Peet, a coffee-roasting entrepreneur, was a major inspiration to the founders of Starbucks.

By the early 1980s Starbucks had opened four stores in Seattle that stood out from the competitors with their top-quality fresh-roasted coffees. In 1980 Siegl decided to pursue other interests and left the two remaining partners, with Baldwin assuming the role of company president. Howard Schultz, a sales representative for Hammarplast, a Swedish company that made kitchen equipment and housewares from which Starbucks bought drip-coffee makers, noticed how large the company’s orders were, which prompted him to pay it a visit. Schultz was so impressed that he decided to pursue a career at Starbucks, and he was hired as the head of marketing in 1982. Schultz’s biggest idea for the future of Starbucks came during the spring of 1983 when the company sent him to Milan to attend an international housewares show. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Seeing that he would not be able to persuade Baldwin and Bowker to embrace the café idea, Schultz left Starbucks in 1985 and started his own coffee chain, called Il Giornale, which was an immediate success, quickly expanding into multiple cities.

In March 1987 Baldwin and Bowker decided to sell Starbucks, and Schultz was quick to use Il Giornale to purchase the company with investor backing. Schultz announced in 2000 that he was stepping down as CEO but would remain as chairman. By 2007 the chain boasted more than 15,000 locations worldwide but was foundering, and in January 2008 Schultz returned as CEO. During this time, however, Starbucks was also facing various challenges. Notably, workers at several of its stores began to unionize, despite opposition from the company.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and related supply-chain issues had a negative impact on sales, especially in China, one of the company’s key markets. Order ahead and skip the queue! Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives. In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.

WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find. In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions. Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more. While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today. Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.