Starbucks (SBUX) is in the coffee business. Owning and operating over 18,877 coffee shops in 55 countries and at least 12,500 are in the United States. Canada has over 1,200 and there are over 700 in the United Kingdom as well. Starbucks (SBUX) got its start in Seattle, Washington. The brainchild of English teacher Jerry Baldwin, History teacher Zev Siegl and writer Gordon Bowker. Inspired by entrepreneur Alfred Peek, a friend of theirs, to sell quality coffee and equipment. Starbucks started with just one location and quickly expanded worldwide.
Named after a character in Moby Dick, the name Pequod was quickly rejected by one of the founders. Instead, keeping with the movie theme, the company was named after the chief mate on the Pequod, Starbuck. It seems fitting since Starbucks (SBUX) ships its famous coffee around the world.
Always the place where you could find the worlds best coffee, Starbucks (SBUX) was originally located in Seattle’s Historical Pike Place Market. This was 1971 and if you wanted a good cup of coffee you had to be willing to travel since that was the only Starbucks (SBUX) in existence.
By the 1980’s Howard Schultz had joined Starbucks (SBUX). While he was on a business trip in Italy he visited Milan’s famous espresso bars. He was so impressed with the espresso bars popularity and culture that he could for see the potential in Seattle. He was right. After trying lattes and such Seattle was soon to become coffee crazy and a booming business was born.
By the time the 1990’s rolled around, Starbucks (SBUX) was expanding beyond Seattle. First to the rest of the United States and then on to the entire world. Starbucks (SBUX) became one of the first companies to offer stock options to their part time employees. They became a publicly traded company shortly after that.
Noted for their environmental stewardship Starbucks (SBUX) promotes recycling, energy efficient stores that save on water and run as green as possible. With green incentives such as using a tumbler and saving .10 cents on every cup ordered, the phenomenon is a craze that has swept the nation especially those concerned about the environment.
The only competition for Starbucks (SBUX) are Seattle’s Best (SBUX) a less expensive version of Starbucks (SBUX) owned by Starbucks (SB UX) and Tully’s (TULLY). Owning your own competition was a wise move on the part of Starbucks (SBUX) Seattle’s Best (SBUX) still ranks up there near Starbucks (SBUX) in the rankings.
As far as Starbucks (SBUX) goes, they still lead the way of the coffee empire with a wide margin.