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Starbucks : A Major American Company Essay

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History Starbucks is a major American company that was founded in 1971 by three college friends in Seattle, Washington. Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker at one time were all of different paths until they learned coffee roasting techniques from coffee entrepreneur, Alfred Peet (Starbucks Timeline, 2016). Alfred taught the three friends his particular style of roasting which ignited a spark in the trio and they were inspired to sell high quality coffee beans and roasting equipment. They soon started brainstorming names, and finally settled on Starbucks The first Starbucks location was at 2000 Western Avenue from 1971–1976 in Seattle. Later the café was moved to 1912 Pike Place Market, and has not moved since (Starbucks Timeline, 2016). During this early period of Starbucks, the company old sold roasted whole bean coffee. They bought green coffee beans from Peet’s and soon started buying directly from the growers. Even though roasted coffee they did not brew it to sell yet, only to sample.
Eventually in 1984, the owners of Starbucks, purchased Peet 's. Even though the price of coffee was decreasing, by 1986 the company operated six stores in Seattle and had really just began to sell espresso coffee (Starbucks Timeline, 2016). A year later in 1987, the original owners sold the Starbucks chain to former employee Howard Schultz. The next step for Howard was to rebrand his Il Giornale coffee outlets as Starbucks. Later in the same year,

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