Millions of Americans visit coffee shops as a part of their daily routine and subsequently, several successful coffee chains have emerged.  Its not hard to argue that the most successful and widespread coffee chain of them all is Starbucks. Before obtaining worldwide influence, Starbucks began as one coffee shop in Seattle.

On this day, March 30th, in 1971, the first Starbucks is opened in Seattle, Washington by three men: Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker.  The three founders chose the name Starbucks based on the chief mate in the story of Moby-Dick, Starbuck.  The original location began at 2000 Western Avenue and moved to its current day location of 1912 Pike Place.

By the 1980s, Starbucks had grown in popularity and had created a chain of coffee shops in Seattle.  In 1988, the chain was sold to Schultz’s II Giornale.  From that point, the Starbucks franchise began to expand rapidly.  By 1992, Starbucks had grown to over 160 locations and began to be publicly offered on the stock market.  Starbucks presently has more than 17,000 locations spread amongst 55 countries.