Let’s remember when Starbucks opened their first store, on this day in 1971 (March 30)
29,324 is the number of Starbucks stores worldwide. It began 48 years ago today.
HistoryLink says:
On the morning of March 30, 1971, Jerry Baldwin (b. 1942), Gordon Bowker (b. 1942), and Zev Siegl (b. 1942) flip on the lights and set a sandwich board outside their new coffee shop at 2000 Western Avenue — and then wait. The first customer to step in is their friend Dan Chasan, on his way to the nearby Pike Place Market, his two-year-old daughter Sarah in tow. They don’t (and won’t for more than a decade) sell coffee drinks, but the three proprietors, eager to try out their sales technique, brew Chasan a free sample cup of coffee. Then they scoop out deliciously aromatic beans from glass-fronted bins, hold them under his nose, and expound on the characteristics of coffee from Ethiopia, Columbia, Guatemala, Arabia, and other exotic locales. Chasan goes for the Sumatra, at $1.75 a pound, chooses some tea, and writes a check for $5.36. Another friend comes in with a bottle of white wine to celebrate the store opening, so Chasan stays to share it. He gives a little taste to Sarah and she begins running in exuberant circles around the store. Starbucks is in business.
It should be noted that 2000 Western is not where the “first Starbucks” is today, at Pike Place Market. As Wikipedia clears up, “While commonly referred to as the first Starbucks location, the current address is the second for the Pike Place store. The first Starbucks cafe was located at 2000 Western Avenue from 1971–1976. This cafe later moved to 1912 Pike Place, its present location.”
Also, fuck Howard Schultz forever and ever.
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