Initially, the storefront only sold coffee beans and equipment, a far cry from the extensive menus available today.
The Starbucks sign is seen on the window of the World's first ever Starbucks coffee shop.
In 1981, future CEO Howard Schultz first visited Starbucks. The following year he joined as director of retail operations and marketing.
Howard Schultz.
In 1982, Starbucks also opened its fifth location, selling brewed coffee for the first time.
FILE PHOTO: A customer sips her coffee in Starbucks' Mayfair Vigo Street branch in central London
By 1992, there were 165 Starbucks locations, and the company completed an IPO at $17 per share.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz speaks about the the company's financials during the Starbucks Annual Shareholders Meeting.
Starbucks first introduced the frappuccino in 1995 as a blend of coffee, milk, and ice. Other customizations would come later.
Coffee Frappuccino® Blended Coffee
Starbucks hit a rough patch in 2007, with stock prices plummeting 42% as customers turned to competitors like McDonald's and Dunkin who started offering higher-quality coffee items.
Schultz returned as CEO in 2008 to close underperforming stores, retrain employees, and get Starbucks back to its roots, priming the chain for a comeback.
Howard Schultz, president of the US Starbucks coffee chain, drinks a cup of coffee in the first Starbucks store on February 16, 2006 in Chongqing Municipality, China. Starbucks is taking the plunge into the Chongqing market. The Chinese coffee market is expected to grow by 70 per cent in total sales volume between 2003 and 2008 to reach 11,073 tons, Euromonitor's findings indicate.
Starbucks opened its first Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle in 2014, a larger-format flagship-style store.
Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room.
Instagrammable drinks like the Unicorn frappuccino drove sales in 2017, and customers were able to customize increasingly elaborate drinks.
Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino.
Starbucks faced backlash after two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks in 2018 in a viral video, though bystanders said the men did nothing wrong.
Protestor Donn T (C) demonstrates inside a Center City Starbucks on April 15, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Police arrested two black men who were waiting inside the Center City Starbucks which prompted an apology from the company's CEO.
In response, Starbucks closed all 8000-plus US stores for a day in May 2018 for racial-bias education, which also became a permanent part of new hire training.
A Starbucks barista fulfills an order in a South Philadelphia store, before more than 8,000 branches nationwide will close this afternoon for anti-bias training, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Drive-thru and pickup orders have become key to Starbucks' business, making up 80% of orders prior to the pandemic and even more since then.
Starbucks drive-thru.
Photo by Jason Whitman/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Starbucks continues to invest in drive-thru technologies, including digital screens with AI that can recommend items and make waits shorter.
Starbucks barista.
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