Starbucks Background

Introduction

Company Background

Starbucks began in 1971 when three academics English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker opened a store called Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice in the touristy Pikes Place Market in Seattle. The three partners shared a love of fine coffees and exotic teas and believed they could build a clientele in Seattle much like that which had already emerged in the San Francisco Bay area. Baldwin, Siegel, and Bowker chose the name Starbucks in honour of Starbuck, the coffee loving first mate in Herman Melville's Moby Dick and because they thought the name evoked the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders. The new company's logo, designed by an artist friend, was a two tailed mermaid encircled by the store's name.

The inspiration for the Starbucks enterprise was a Dutch immigrant, Alfred Peet, who had begun importing fine Arabica coffees into the United States during the 1950s. Peet viewed coffee as a fine winemaker views grape, appraising it in terms of country of origin, estates, and harvests. Peet had opened a small store, Peet's Coffee and Tea, in Berkeley, California, in 1966 and had cultivated a loyal clientele. Peet's store specialized in importing fine coffees and teas, dark roasting its own beans the European way to bring out their full flavor, and teaching customers how to grind the beans and make freshly brewed coffee at home. Baldwin, Siegel, and Bowker were well acquainted with Peet's expertise, having visited his store on numerous occasions and spent many hours listening to Peet expound on quality coffees and the importance of proper bean roasting techniques. All three were devoted fans of Peet and his dark roasted coffees, going so far as to order their personal coffee supplies by mail from Peet's.

The Pikes Place store featured modest, hand built nautical fixtures. One wall was devoted to whole bean coffees; another had shelves of coffee...