Starbucks Facts
I always thought that Howard Schultz was the founder of the company. Turns out I was wrong. Again! Three other men Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegel founded it and they didn’t even sell coffee beverages. They sold the beans that they bought from Peets Coffee which they roasted in their shop in the Pike Place Market in Seattle starting in 1971. Alfred Peets was their model and they actually knew him. They wanted to provide consumers with the highest quality beans to grind and brew at home. Turns out Schultz never showed up until 1982 and then he left because he thought they should sell coffee beverages as well as beans and I guess they didn’t agree. They had a pretty good thing going already so why take the risk? Shultz left and formed the the Il Giornale coffee chain and the founders of Starbucks bought out Peets. Then the founders sold the company to Schultz and he changed the whole thing over to his dream and the chain began from there! In the 90s Schultz expanded beyond Seattle with the new formula of coffee beverages like fancy espressos and coffees the way you want it and we all know the rest. They went public and now it’s all around the world. |
