Starbucks - Timeline

1975 - Schultz found work as an appliance salesman for Hammarplast, a company that sold European coffee beans and coffee makers in the United States. He soon became the director of the company and found out that the he was selling more coffee beans to Starbucks over the years, although it only has a few stores.

1982 - Schultz was hired as director of retail operations and marketing of Starbucks (which at the time only sold coffee beans, not drinks)

1985 - Schultz wanted to direct Starbucks into the business of selling drinks, but the founders did not want to go that direction. Disappointed, Schultz left Starbucks and created his own coffee bar, Il Giornale, which quickly garnered success.

1987 - This year, Schultz purchased Starbucks and merged Il Giornale with Starbucks. He then became the CEO and chairman of the Starbucks Coffee Company.

2000 - Schultz public announced that he was resigning as Starbucks’ CEO.

2008 - Returned to Starbucks to head the company. In a interview with CBS, Schultz said of Starbucks' mission, "We're not in the business of filling bellies; we're in the business of filling souls."

2014 - Starbucks had more than 21,000 stores worldwide and a market cap of $60 billion. The incredibly popular coffee company reportedly opens two or three new stores every day and attracts around 60 million customers per week.

2018 (June) - June 2018, Howard Schultz announced that he would be stepping down as chairman of Starbucks at the end of the month. At the time, the chain had grown to include more than 28,000 stores in 77 countries.

84 Stores

33 Stores

272 Stores

1,412 Stores

10,241 Stores

16,858 Stores

22,519 Stores