Starbucks_History

Starbucks History Starbucks began in 1971 when three men opened a store called Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice in Pikes Peak Market in Seattle. Jerry Baldwin, an English teacher, Zev Siegel, a history teacher, and Gordon Bowker, a writer, all shared a love for fine coffees and exotic teas. Each invested $1350 and borrowed $5,000 from a bank to open the store. The partners chose the name Starbucks in honor of the coffee-loving first mate in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The inspiration for Starbucks was Alfred Peet, who began importing coffees into the US in the 1950s. Peet had achieved great success in California with Peet’s Coffee and Tea. The Pikes Place store was decorated with hand-built nautical features. One wall was devoted to whole bean coffees while another wall consisted of shelves of coffee products. Samples were available for testing, but the store did not sell fresh-brewed coffee. The store was an immediate success, and sales exceeded all expectations. During the first year, Starbucks ordered its coffee beans from Peet’s. The partners later acquired a used roaster from Holland and set up roasting operations in a nearby building in Seattle. By starbucks, stores, schultz, coffee, store, coffees, employees, company, seattle, sales, first, customers, baldwin, year, opened, new, business, bowker, been, 1987, union, three, roasting, peet’s, million, jerry, il, gordon, giornale, day, bean, 1992, whole, tea