Starbucks did not want to sell any beverage in their stores, ever.
Now, there is a very interesting story about how this changed.
First, a little background -
The company was started by Gerald Baldwin (Jerry), Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegel in 1971 as a coffee bean store in Seattle. They were highly inspired by Peet’s Coffee and Tea, a store in Berkeley, which they later went on to acquire.
Starbucks was originally a retailer from where people purchased the finest roasted coffee beans.
Howard Schultz, the chief architect of Starbucks and CEO from 1986 to 2000 and 2008 to 2017, got himself hired, seeing the enormous opportunity the business had. He took up the role of sales, marketing and merchandising.
To understand the coffee culture better, Howard went to Italy. It was there on the streets of Milan, experiencing the wonderful coffee bars, listening to the stories of the baristas, he had the billion-dollar idea of bringing the Italian culture to America.
The breakthrough -
It took Howard more than a year to convince his bosses to serve espresso at the store. They agreed to test this idea, selling coffee as a beverage, for the first time when Starbucks opened their sixth store in April 1984.
The store was an instant hit and Howard was on cloud nine. But the success didn’t go well with Jerry as he believed it was a distraction from the core business of selling exquisite Arabica coffee beans at retail. He didn’t want Starbucks to be a place where people come for a quick cup of coffee.
The conflict led to Howard moving out from Starbucks and starting his own company under the name Il Giornale, opening the first store on April 8, 1986.
In March 1987, Jerry and Gordon decided to sell all 6 Starbucks. Howard barely managed to raise the funds to buy the assets of Starbucks, which amounted to 3.8 million dollars.
By August 1987, Starbucks belonged to Howard Schultz and he merged Il Giornale store under the Starbucks name, and thus Starbucks Corporation was formed, which changed the coffee industry forever.
Starbucks hasn’t looked back since and continues to dominate the world with its signature coffee beverages.