Geographical Distribution of Starbucks in the United States
Starbucks Coffee is a coffeehouse company formed in 1971 in Seattle, Washington, by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker. Though starting as a roaster and seller of beans, it became a coffee house that offered espresso-based beverages once Howard Schultz purchased it in the early 1980s. Schultz was the CEO of the company from 1986 to 2000 and embarked on a highly-charged expansion of the franchise to cover the western region before moving to the other parts of the country. Orin Smith and Jim Donald followed this policy of growth and diversification, but Schultz came back again during the 2007-08 financial crisis to boost the company’s market shares and responsibility towards society.