

Humble Beginnings - The First Starbucks Store - lsternlicht
http://dustincurtis.com/humble-beginnings.html

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timr
Unfortunately, the story behind Starbucks is a bit more complicated than it
seems from this -- the original Starbucks _was_ a humble enterprise.

The Starbucks that launched wasn't really intended to be a coffeehouse, so
much as a local boutique bean retailer. The grandiose plans for world
domination didn't form until Howard Schultz took over, years later. By then,
the founders were long gone. That's not meant to take away from the whole
"humble beginning" motif, but the Starbucks story is more realistically told
as that of a savvy businessman buying a moderately successful local business
from his former bosses, and making the brand much bigger than the founders
could manage.

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ynniv
Like McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and QDOS (Microsoft), the real riches came when a
savvy businessman took an entrepreneurial effort and scaled it into a latent
market. Unfortunate for those of us who like the cultural minutia of "local"
business, but important to remember when building your startup.

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dkasper
Well technically, the actual first Starbucks store doesn't exist anymore.

 _The location was at the corner of Virginia and Pike Place, where this first-
ever Starbucks was in business until January of 1977, when it moved to its
current "original" store one block south. The current store in the Market is
actually the sixth one, since there were stores in University Village, Capitol
Hill, Edmonds, and Bellevue, along with the original-original, before the
present Market Starbucks opened._

<http://crosscut.com/2008/04/09/starbucks/13251/>

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hvs
That's weird, I was just thinking this about Starbucks the other day. It
wasn't started with the thought, "We are going to be the largest coffee
business in the world!" It was more likely started with the thought,
"Americans drink shit coffee, I want to show them what good coffee tastes
like." It really is difficult to know which ideas will gain critical mass to
become world-changers.

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hazzen
This article should also note Starbucks is experimenting with moving back
towards "local" coffee houses[1]. I'm sure someone who currently lives in
Seattle can give more information on how well this process is being received
(instead of my own knowledge, which is that of someone who used to live in
Seattle and follows local issues still), but I have a very low opinion of the
strategy. I would prefer my local coffeeshop to be local, not appear local but
fund a company that probably doesn't care what happens in the neighbourhood.

[1]:
[http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009479123_s...](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009479123_starbucks16.html)

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throw_away
There was a big brouhaha about the 15th street store because it looks so
similar to smith, the pub next door. The fact that it's starbucks, but doesn't
say that it's starbucks (they do say that they serve starbucks coffee, which
no indy coffee shop would advertise), and the apparent copying of their
neighbor left a bad taste in the mouths of many seattlites.

I've never been in, but I wonder why they chose Seattle as the test-bed for
this sort of thing. There are so many cities that don't have a vibrant local
coffee-shop culture (there are at least three indy shops within a two block
radius of my apartment & the mom&pop convenience store across the street has
an espresso machine). Why not try it out someplace where the consumers aren't
as discriminating and aren't as likely to resent them for doing this?

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10ren
An inspiring thought, but was it Starbucks or the wave that did it? (see
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=956570>)

I'm not (just) being provocative. I'm not even sure how you'd go about
determining what caused the "Starbucks revolution", or even that it's possible
to be certain about historical causation (as some history academics have
suggested).

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stepherm
I walk past this Starbucks nearly every day going to and from work. Too bad
it's always a madhouse of tourists.

~~~
rykov
and the madhouse always blocks the sidewalk because street performers choose
that storefront as a primo spot

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mcantelon
Summary: the jouney of a thousand miles starts with a single step!

