Starbucks Company Timeline
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1971 Starbucks opens first store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.
1982 Howard Schultz joins Starbucks as director of retail operations and marketing. Starbucks begins providing coffee to fine restaurants and espresso bars.
1983 Howard travels to Italy, where he’s impressed with the popularity of espresso bars in Milan. He sees the potential to develop a similar coffeehouse culture in Seattle.
1984 Howard convinces the founders of Starbucks to test the coffeehouse concept in downtown Seattle, where the first Starbucks® Caffè Latte is served. This successful experiment is the genesis for a company that Schultz founds in 1985.