Here is the “rough rough” draft of my paper! (I have a lot more information to add that is why there really isn’t a concluding paragraph yet).
As Howard Schultz once said, “One thing I’ve noticed about romantics: They try to create a new and better world far from the drabness of everyday life. That is Starbucks’ aim, too. We try to create, in our stores, an oasis, a little neighborhood spot where you can take a break, listen to some jazz, and ponder universal or personal or even whimsical questions over a cup of coffee” (Schultz 12). Coffee has always been a big part of culture trends throughout many generations. Starbucks created a dent and new perspective on the coffee trend when Howard Schultz, now chairman and C.E.O. of Starbucks, started working at the coffee shop back in 1982. The small coffee shop was created in 1971 but wasn’t very popular, and only had a few chain shops. Schultz states in his autobiography Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup At a Time, that “the story of Starbucks is not just a record of growth and success. It’s also about how a company can be built in a different way” (Schultz 5). That being said, Starbucks has definitely lived up to this in going with what is hot in today’s society making them more successful in business. In the past 40 years, America has witnessed the culture shift of Starbucks from grab and go coffee to a generational hot spot. It is seen today by many as the place to meet up, and hang out while having one of Starbuck’s many different brews but it wasn’t always seen as this.
The first Starbucks, which at the time was called Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice, was opened back in 1971 in Seattle, Washington as a small coffee shop across from Seattle’s Pike Place Market, only selling retailed coffee beans. The three founders of Starbucks were Zev Siegel, Jerry Baldwin, and Gordon Bowker, who got the idea of the name for the coffee shop from the novel Moby Dick’s character, Starbuck. It was Howard Schultz who came and brought his intelligence on coffee to the company that really started the shift. He had the power and determination to bring knowledge of coffee from around the world to attract customers. Instead of just serving coffee, Schultz brought along with him the idea of espresso bars, and wanting a chance to explore Italy for more information on coffee. He eventually travels to Italy to discover a whole new type of coffee.
Schultz is so impressed by the espresso bars he visited in Milan that he tries to bring this coffeehouse culture back to Seattle back in 1983. These ideas were used to change all of the coffee house’s that were apart of Starbuck’s enterprise which soon brought a ton of attention among customers. What were included in his ideas were: Starbucks’ new Caffé Latte, and II Giornale. II Giornale was a store founded by Schultz that soon after, investors change its name to Starbucks Corporation. At the end of 1987, there were a total of 17 stores established across the country and Canada. The business was booming very rapidly. With it becoming so large so fast, changes had to be made to what the current population wanted. He changed the type of coffee being sold to more European style coffee, and altered the setting and decorations of the shop.
The different type of coffee brought in new, and curious customers. Because of it being so fresh and satisfying, they would tell their friends, who would tell their friends, and so on. Having all of these new customers required having the need to create more place for them to sit and enjoy their cup of coffee. This lead to the realization that Starbucks needed to shift it’s decor and set up for their cafe. They started having lounge areas with couches and tables while playing Jazz and soothing music for their customers. This was made to give their customers a pleasant experience while drinking their European, whole-bean coffee. They started using the wooden, bold colored theme back in the ‘80s which gave the coffee shop a relaxing, and homelike feel to it. Having all of these adjustments made to the cafe not only brought in a lot of new customers, but caught the attention of investors and other businesses.
As Starbucks became the first privately owned U.S. company to offer a stock option program back in 1991, the company had so many doors opened to them (Starbucks n.p.). They were able to open their first store in an airport, they completed the IPO, they open many roasting plants and facilities, all because of the little changes the cafe made to improve their company over the years. “People sometimes say the sun always shines on Starbucks, that our success was built on luck. It’s true that we hit the front wave of what became a North American social phenomenon, the widespread popularity of cafés and espresso bars. I can’t say that I predicted this wave, but I did perceive the romantic appeal of coffee by the cup, in Italy, and then spent three years brainstorming and laying the plans to translate it into an American context” (Schultz 54).