Starbucks Coffee Company Timeline
1971: The first Starbucks, called Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice is opened across from Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington. The three founders - English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker, derived the store's name from a Moby Dick character, Starbuck. The first stores do not sell beverages. They sell retail coffee beans.
1972: A second Starbucks store is opened in Seattle.
Early 1980s: Zev Siegel leaves the company. Jerry Baldwin takes over management of the company and functions as CEO. Gordon Bowker remains involved as a co-owner but other projects take up most of his time, including the launch of his new microbrewery, The Redhook Ale Brewery.
Sept. 1982: Howard Schultz joins the company, taking charge of marketing and overseeing the retail stores.
1984: Starbucks acquires the five stores in San Francisco's Peet's Coffee and Tea chain. During this period, Schultz makes several attempts to convince the original owners to start selling coffee beverages but they prefer to keep the focus on retail coffee products.
April 1984: Starbucks opens its fifth store, the first one in downtown Seattle. Schultz finally convinces the owners to test an espresso bar, making this Starbucks the first to sell coffee beverages. It becomes a huge success.
Late 1984: The Starbucks founders are still resistant to installing espresso bars into other Starbucks locations and Schultz becomes increasingly frustrated. He has visited the espresso bars of Milan, Italy and has a vision of bringing Italian-style espresso bars to America.
Late 1985: Schultz leaves Starbucks and starts the Il Giornale Coffee Company.
Jan. 1986: Schultz raises enough seed money to open several Il Giornale coffee houses. Starbucks founders Baldwin and Bowker support his new endeavor and invest money in the new company.
April 1986: The first Il Giornale store opens.
March 1987: Baldwin and Bowker decide to sell the Starbucks Coffee Company, with Baldwin keeping the Peet's segment of the company.
Aug. 1987: Schultz acquires Starbucks and rebrands all of his Il Giornale coffee houses with the Starbucks name.
1987: Starbucks opens locations in Vancouver, British Columbia and Chicago, Illinois.
1992: Starbucks goes public with its initial public stock offering. At this time it has 165 outlets.
1996: The first Starbucks opens outside of North America in Tokyo, Japan.
Sept. 1997: Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz publishes a book called Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time.
2000: Starbucks sues San Francisco cartoonist Kieron Dwyer for copyright and trademark infringement after she creates a parody of the company's trademark mermaid logo. The case is eventually settled.
April 2003: Starbucks purchases Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia from AFC Enterprises and turns them all into Starbucks outlets.
May 2003: By this time, Starbucks has more than 6,400 outlets worldwide.
May 17, 2004: Starbucks baristas at the 36th and Madison store in Manhattan organize the first Starbucks barista union. They claim that the starting wage of $7.75 per hour is not a living wage in New York City and that the company does not guarantee a minimum number of hours.
July 22, 2004: The Retail Workers' Union IU/660 files an unfair labor practice suit against Starbucks, alleging the company threatened wage cuts and bribed employees in order to influence the results of the barista's union vote.
Oct. 4, 2004: XM Satellite Radio and Starbucks Coffee Company announce the debut of the Starbucks "Hear Music" channel on XM Radio. The station will feature 24 hour music programming featuring an "ever-changing mix of the best new music and essential recordings from all kinds of genres."
Aug. 2005: After Starbucks prints a quote from Armistead Maupin on its cups as part of their "The Way I See It" promotion, the conservative Christian group Concerned Women for America protests. The quote reads: "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short."
Sept. 8, 2005: Starbucks announces plans to donate funds and supplies to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Plans include monetary donations over $5 million as well as donations of coffee, water, and tea products.
Oct. 21, 2005: ABC's 20/20 airs the results of an investigation into coffee outlets serving regular coffee when decaf is ordered. One Starbucks outlet is found to be serving decaf loaded with caffeine. A Starbucks spokeswoman says: "in two samples taken by 20/20, the caffeine content was consistent with regular, not decaffeinated, coffee...We believe this error to be an isolated incident and an unfortunate occurrence that we take seriously. We have sent information to our stores to re-emphasize our operating procedures."
