24 facts, stats, and other stories about Starbucks

Although it seems like a more recent phenomenon, Starbucks was actually founded back in 1971. It began with just a single shop that Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker, and Zev Siegl opened in Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market.

According to Gordon Bowker, the name “Starbucks” started with another one of his business partners, Terry Heckler, who suggested words beginning with “st” sounded more powerful. Someone mentioned the mining town of “Starbo,” which made Bowker think of Starbuck, the first mate aboard the Pequod in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dıck.” The name had nothing to do with coffee, but the trio agreed it was better than their next-best idea, “Cargo House.” (We agree!)

Believe it or not, the original Starbucks location didn’t serve cups of coffee, espresso, lattes, or anything else you could eat or drink. Instead, they sold bulk bags of coffee, tea, and spices, as well as some coffeemakers, teapots, and other items that help you make the beverages at home.

In 1983, Starbucks’ 30-year-old director of retail operations and marketing, Howard Schultz, took a trip to Italy and tried to convince the trio of founders to start serving lattes and other espresso-based drinks. They turned him down. Schultz parted ways with the company to start his own coffee shop, but when the founders wanted to sell Starbucks in the late 1980s, Schultz bought it for $3.8 million and put the name on his cafe. Expansion across the U.S. soon followed.

Once Schultz took over in 1987, the expansion was swift. Only two years later, there were nearly 50 stores in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. By 1992, another 100 were added. And by the late ‘90s, Starbucks already had locations in Europe and Asia. Today, there are more than 16,000 outlets in the U.S. alone and another 16,000 in some 80 countries worldwide.

There’s a town in Starbucks’ home state of Washington called Starbuck, but it has nothing to do with the coffee chain. In fact, there aren’t even any Starbucks in Starbuck. In fact, if you’re in Starbuck and want to grab a Pumpkin Spice Latte, the closest Starbucks is about 75 miles away.

Although some people have claimed it has Satanic or pagan origins, the Starbucks logo is actually a twin-tailed mermaid or siren, which are mythical figures from the nautical world that would lure sailors to their deaths. Starbucks hoped the logo would lure coffee lovers into their stores, and it has clearly worked, even though an earlier logo featuring a topless siren actually caused some people to boycott the chain.

The current Starbucks logo is less racy than former versions, but the mermaid is still a bit much for some countries. In Saudi Arabia, there are 400 Starbucks locations, but none of them are adorned with the logo we know. The stores either go logo-free on their signage, or they feature a simpler image of the siren’s crown floating on water.

The aprons, the music, the decor — it’s all part of the well-crafted Starbucks coffee shop atmosphere that customers are now accustomed to. But have you ever noticed that all the tables are round? This was also a careful decision, according to Starbucks’ president of global development, as round tables make parties of one feel less lonely, while making larger parties feel more social.

The Frappuccino is synonymous with Starbucks — and for good reason, as they make billions of dollars each year on the Frappuccino alone — but the chain didn’t invent this frozen coffee drink. Starbucks actually acquired it when they bought the Coffee Connection, a high-end retailer that was based in Massachusetts. The name is a portmanteau of the words “frappe” (which is a thick milkshake native to New England) and “cappuccino.” 

When you take into account all of the different types of drinks and all the customizable ways to make them (including various creamers, sweeteners, and syrups), there are about 87,000 possible drink combinations available. Of course, the menu is constantly changing, and thus, this figure is also ever-evolving.

In 2022, Starbucks listed its revenue at $32.25 billion, a 10.98% increase from 2021. To put that in terms of people, Starbucks’ 32,000 restaurants see 100 million customers every week!

Repeat customers are the foundation of nearly any successful business, and Starbucks has that statistic on its side. Whether getting coffee, lattes, or something to eat, the average Starbucks customer stops in about six times every month. Another surprising figure states that 20% of Starbucks customers visit a whopping 16 times a month!

Starbucks might not be the most popular chain in the world (McDonalds and Subway still own the top spots), but they still had the second-most popular point-of-sale app in 2021. Not only is their app more popular than those of the fast food chains we just mentioned, but it’s also used more than incredibly popular transactional apps like Google Pay and Samsung Pay. (Wondering who No. 1 is? It’s Apple Pay!)

You might think an experimenting barista created Starbucks’ now-iconic Pumpkin Spice Latte, but it was actually an executive. The company’s director of global growth and concepts (who was a graduate of Stanford and formerly in charge of Starbucks’ espresso drinks), Peter Dukes, created the Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2001 while trying to find a fall complement to the brand’s peppermint-based holiday drinks. It was released two years later and has been a smash hit ever since.

While developing the Pumpkin Spice Latte, Peter Dukes and his team tried to find the best flavor balance of pumpkin and the so-called “pumpkin spices” of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. Ultimately, they decided the best ratio included no pumpkin flavor. However, in 2015, 12 years after the drink's debut, pumpkin puree was added to the list of ingredients.

If you see an employee wearing a black apron embroidered with the words “Coffee Master,” you should recognize that you’re in the presence of greatness. Not all Starbucks baristas get to wear the coveted black apron — they need to first graduate from the Starbucks Coffee Academy, a series of courses that entail a deep dive into “the many facets of the coffee industry and Starbucks’ role as a leader in ethical sourcing, roasting, blending, brewing, and craft,” according to the company.

The option to buy CDs at Starbucks used to be a running joke among customers, but the company was serious about these sales and the music played in their stores — serious enough that they actually launched a record label. Founded in 1990, Hear Music began as a catalog company, but after being bought by Starbucks in 2007, it started releasing new music. Huge names like Kenny G, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon were all clients at one time, but with the rise of streaming music, Starbucks left behind the label in favor of a partnership with Spotify.

Headlines worldwide reported that Starbucks suspended all operations in Russia after the country invaded Ukraine in 2022. But many people missed the follow-up to that story, which involved a Russian rapper named Timati purchasing all the stores, renaming them “Stars Coffee,” and rolling out a very similar logo, uniforms, and menu to that of Starbucks.

Folks who remember the show “MTV Cribs” may recall that Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee had a Starbucks in his Malibu home — sort of. It wasn’t a storefront staffed by employees or anything like that, but he was granted an official Starbucks coffee maker along with a grinder, pumps, and several other accessories (including an apron!), all of which were provided and installed by the actual company. The episode aired way back in the year 2000, but Tommy confirmed in a 2020 interview that he still had the in-home Starbucks!

In 2013, Starbucks pledged to support American veterans and military personnel, which included providing jobs and offering relocation services, community-building efforts, and mental health care. They also pledged to more than double the number of Starbucks stores on military bases and even opened one on a U.S. Navy warship! That’s right, the same year Starbucks made its initial pledge, the company cut the ribbon on a location aboard the USS Boxer, a San Diego-based assault ship!

There are clearly a lot of interesting Starbucks locations to add to your travel bucket list, but here’s one you won’t be able to visit — unless you work for the Central Intelligence Agency. Located at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, this Starbucks is so exclusive that its employees have to go through extensive background checks and must be escorted around the campus. There’s also no store location or branding on the receipts, no rewards program, and baristas aren’t allowed to ask for customers’ names (or even aliases) to put on the cups!

David Fincher’s “Fight Club” (1999) is a masterpiece of cinema crammed with more Easter eggs than a cheap wicker basket adorned with plastic grass. These hidden jokes and references include the placement of hidden Starbucks coffee cups in nearly every scene. Fincher said the cups are a commentary on how products are put in front of our faces so frequently that eventually we become desensitized to them. Mission accomplished.

Starbucks says they value a solid education, and they certainly put their money where their mouth is. Every eligible U.S. employee working part-time or full-time can receive 100% tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online platform. That gives staffers a choice of more than 140 undergraduate programs!