Starbucks Globalisation

Starbucks was founded by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Ziegler and Gordon Bowker in 1971 in Seattle, U.S.A. They named their company after Starbuck from the Moby Dick novel who was a coffee lover. Starbucks sold primarily whole bean Arabica coffee. They got their supply from Alfred Peet of Peet's Coffee and were under the agreement that once Starbucks 'got too big, they would have to roast their own'. Their main focus was to sell a high quality cup of coffee. In 1984 Harold Schultz joined the company as a director of operations and marketing and brought in a new concept in bringing the Starbucks Company forward. He wanted to implement the 'third place' concept, based on the Italian Cafe feel. After meeting resistance to this concept, Schultz left in 1985 to set up his own coffee bar 'Il Giornale and by 1987 he had opened three coffee shops. In the same year Bowker and Baldwin wanted to sell and Il Giornale accuired the assets of 'Starbucks Coffee Company' and became the Starbucks Corporation. In order for Starbucks to keep its rate of expansion going they became a publicly traded company in 1992. In the mid-1990's Starbucks decided to expand internationally (outside U.S.A and Canada). In July 2008, Starbucks made the decision to close 600 of its underperforming stores in the United States and closed. In 1996 they opened their first oversees store in Japan.

Part 2

It took 25 years for Starbucks to become an international company. The mobility of the company's goods and services have been made easier with modern technology and they have been striving to give the effect of the 'third place' on an international stage. This for the majority had a positive impact on the Starbucks brand financially, allowing the company to become one of the largest coffee companies in the world. The negative side is that during the massive global boom of the noughties, Starbucks began to 'water down' the 'Starbucks experience' I order to put up more stores and keep up with the rapid growth of