Abstract

Ask friends to go get coffee and the first question is which Starbucks is close for everyone to meet. Many know and enjoy Starbucks coffee but not many know the history surrounding the numerous brands and types of coffee. Opening in the 1970s the Starbucks name was derived from the American Novel, Herman Melville's Moby Dick a story about the whaling industry of the 19th century. The Starbucks name makes sense because as the whalers did by bringing in the finest products to the states, Starbucks does with importing the finest coffees of the world to the citizens of Seattle, Washington. In 1982 Howard Schultz joined the Starbucks team bringing new ideas to enjoying a great cup of coffee. On a business trip to Italy Schultz was impressed by the Milan espresso bars and believed the lattes and mochas would be welcomed by the citizens of Seattle. He was right; the cold and hot coffee phenomena took off light fire. In the 1990s the coffee craze expanded to the rest of the United States, then the world. In the same year Starbucks became a publicly traded company and was one of the first companies to offer stock options to its part-time employees (Starbucks, 2003).