Starbucks facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Starbucks Corporation

Logo since 2011
Headquarters at Starbucks Center in Seattle, Washington
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: SBUX Nasdaq-100 component S&P 100 component S&P 500 component
Industry	Coffee shop
Founded	March 30, 1971; 53 years ago (1971-03-30) Pike Place Market, Elliott Bay, Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Founders	Jerry Baldwin Zev Siegl Gordon Bowker
Headquarters	Starbucks Center, Seattle, Washington , U.S.
Number of locations	38,038 (2023)
Area served	84 countries
Key people	Mellody Hobson (Chairwoman) Laxman Narasimhan (CEO)
Products	Coffee beverages smoothies tea baked goods sandwiches
Revenue	US$35.98 billion (2023)
Operating income	US$5.871 billion (2023)
Net income	US$4.125 billion (2023)
Total assets	US$29.45 billion (2023)
Total equity	▲ US$−7.99 billion (2023)
Number of employees	c. 381,000 (2023)
Subsidiaries	Starbucks Coffee Ethos Water Hear Music La Boulange Bakery Teavana Torrefazione Italia Tata Starbucks (India)
Footnotes / references Financials as of October 1,  2023 (2023 -10-01)[update].

Starbucks is a chain of stores that sell coffee. A chain is many stores owned by the same company. Many of the stores look the same, and all stores sell the same items, often at the same prices. As well as coffee, Starbucks sells beverages and baked goods.

Starbucks started in Seattle in the United States in 1971. The number of stores has grown quickly. There are over 9,000 Starbucks stores all over the world. Most of these stores are in the United States. Some large cities in the U.S. have many Starbucks stores. Sometimes they open so many stores in one city that there are two Starbucks within a few blocks of each other.

Starbucks serves hot and cold drinks, whole-bean coffee, micro-ground instant coffee, espresso, caffe latte, full and loose-leaf teas, juices, Frappuccino beverages, pastries, and snacks. Some offerings are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store. Depending on the country, most locations provide free Wi-Fi Internet access.

Products

Starbucks' caffe lattes

Coffee cup sizes

Low calorie and sugar-free products

In January 2008, Starbucks began a "skinny" line of drinks, offering lower-calorie and sugar-free versions of the company's offered drinks that use skim milk, and can be sweetened by a choice of natural sweeteners (such as raw sugar, agave syrup, or honey), artificial sweeteners (such as Sweet'N Low, Splenda, Equal), or one of the company's sugar-free syrup flavors.

Non-dairy milk offerings

In 1997, Starbucks first offered non-dairy milk at its U.S. stores with the introduction of soy milk.

In 2007, Starbucks stopped using milk originating from rBGH-treated cows. The company also adopted a new dairy standard for all espresso-based drinks, switching from whole to 2% reduced fat milk.

In 2015, Starbucks began serving coconut milk. In 2016, it began serving almond milk. In January 2020, oat milk became available nationally. The company also offers non-dairy creamers at retail in partnership with Nestle SA.

CEO Kevin Johnson said in a 2020 interview that, milk substitutes will be a big part of reducing carbon emissions. That effort has prompted vegans, environmentalists, people with lactose intolerance and others to urge the company to eliminate the upcharge for drinks made with dairy-free milk. PETA encouraged sit-ins at Starbucks locations and purchased Starbucks stock to draw attention to what they believe is an unfair charge. A Starbucks Canada spokesperson told ET Canada that customizations such as added flavours, non-dairy beverages or an additional shot of espresso, will incur an additional charge.

In December 2020, Starbucks announced it will offer Oatly oat milk in all US stores starting in spring 2021.

Ethos water

Ethos water, a brand of bottled water acquired by Starbucks in 2003, is sold at locations throughout North America. Ethos bottles feature prominent labeling stating "helping children get clean water", referring to the fact that US$0.05 from each US$1.80 bottle sold (US$0.10 per bottle in Canada) is used to fund clean water projects in underdeveloped areas. Although sales of Ethos water have raised over US$6.2 million for clean water efforts, the brand is not incorporated as a charity. Critics have argued that the claim on the label misleads consumers into thinking that Ethos is primarily a charitable organization when it is actually a for-profit brand and only 5 cents per bottle supports clean-water projects.

The founders of Ethos have stated that the brand is intended to raise awareness of third-world clean water issues and provide socially responsible consumers with an opportunity to support the cause by choosing Ethos over other brands. Starbucks has since redesigned the American version of the Ethos water bottles, stating the amount of money donated per bottle in the description.

Instant coffee

In March 2009, Starbucks introduced a line of instant coffee packets, called VIA "Ready Brew". It was first unveiled in New York City with subsequent testing of the product also in Seattle, Chicago, and London. The first two VIA flavors include Italian Roast and Colombia, which were then rolled out in October 2009, across the U.S. and Canada with Starbucks stores promoting the product with a blind "taste challenge" of the instant versus fresh roast, in which many people could not tell the difference between the instant and freshly brewed coffee. Financial analysts speculated that by introducing instant coffee, Starbucks would devalue its own brand.

Coffee makers and single-use capsules

In September 2012, Starbucks announced plans to introduce the Verismo, a consumer-grade single-serve coffee machine that uses sealed plastic cups of coffee grounds, and a "milk pod" for lattes.

In November 2012, Starbucks Verismo became publicly available, consisting of a line of coffee makers that brew espresso and regular chocolate from coffee capsules, a type of pre-apportioned single-use container of ground coffee and flavourings utilizing the K-Fee pod system.

In a brief review of the 580 model, Consumer Reports described the results of a comparative test of the Verismo 580 against two competitive brands:

Because you have to conduct a rinse cycle between each cup, the Verismo wasn't among the most convenient of single-serve machines in our coffeemaker tests. Other machines we've tested have more flexibility in adjusting brew-strength—the Verismo has buttons for coffee, espresso, and latte with no strength variation for any type. And since Starbucks has limited its coffee selection to its own brand, there are only eight varieties so far plus a milk pod for the latte.

Fruit juices, fruit beverages, and sodas

On November 10, 2011, Starbucks acquired juice company Evolution Fresh for US$30 million in cash and planned to start a chain of juice bars starting in around the middle of 2012, venturing into territory staked out by Jamba Inc. Its first store released in San Bernardino, California and plans for a store in San Francisco were to be launched in early 2013.

In March 2012, Starbucks began selling a line of iced Starbucks Refresher beverages that contain a green coffee extract. The beverages are fruit flavored and contain caffeine but advertised as having no coffee flavor. Starbucks's green coffee extraction process involves soaking the beans in water.

In June 2014, Starbucks began trialing its own line of carbonated sodas, dubbed "Fizzio". The drinks required a special machine to make.

Energy drinks

In January 2022, Starbucks launched a line of canned energy drinks, called "Baya". The drink contains caffeine from the coffee fruit.

Seasonal cups

Each year between November–January, Starbucks releases new holiday merchandise, including new paper cups with various festive designs.

Barrel-aged coffee

In March 2017, Starbucks announced the launch of two new limited-edition specialty drinks made from beans aged in whiskey barrels at its Seattle roastery. Starbucks's barrel-aged coffee will be sold with a small batch of unroasted Starbucks Reserve Sulawesi beans, which are then hand-scooped into whiskey barrels from Washington state.

Oleato coffee

In February 2023, Starbucks announced it would introduce a line of coffee drinks made with extra virgin olive oil, including lattes, shaken espresso, and cold brews. This would not be a limited-time offering, but rather "'one of the biggest launches we’ve had in decades,'" according to Brady Brewer, the company's chief marketing officer. The goal was to create a new category of beverage. Unlike other drinks, this came about because of the habits of then-CEO Howard Schultz, who was introduced to consuming a teaspoon of olive oil each day by olive oil producer Tommaso Asaro, whom he met in Sicily. At the time of the announcement, the drinks were available in Italy, with plans to introduce them to stores in Southern California in the spring of 2023 and then the UK, Middle East, and Japan later that year.

In January 2024, the company said it would introduce these beverages nationwide.

Starbucks card and loyalty program

In May 2008, a loyalty program was introduced for registered users of the Starbucks Card (previously simply a gift card) offering perks such as free Wi-Fi Internet access, no charge for soy milk and flavored syrups, and free refills on brewed drip coffee, iced coffee, or tea. Each time a customer purchases a drink, they will earn stars if they present their rewards card or scan their card from the mobile app. Eventually, these stars accumulate to allow customers to redeem for perks such as free drinks, free add-ins, free bakery items or selected merchandise.

In 2009, Starbucks began beta testing its mobile app for the Starbucks card, a stored value system in which consumers access pre-paid funds to purchase products at Starbucks. Starbucks released its complete mobile platform in January 2011. By December 2011, the number of mobile transactions exceeded 26 million.

Locations

Countries with Starbucks locations as of October 2022

The company's headquarters is in Seattle, Washington, United States, where 3,501 people worked as of January 2015. The main building in the Starbucks complex was previously a Sears distribution center.

As of February 2023^[update], Starbucks had 36,171 locations open across 83 countries, with 61% of the locations operating in the U.S. and China, and the rest operating elsewhere.

In February 2024, the chain unveiled a new store design aimed at improving accessibility. The first location to use this design is the Washington, D.C. Union Market store. The company plans for all future company-owned stores to adopt a similar design.

Economic summary

Graph showing the growth in the number of Starbucks stores between 1971 and 2011

Images for kids

• 

  Interior of the Pike Place Market location in 1977

• 

  Howard Schultz served as chief executive from 1986 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2017.

• 

  Starbucks workers protesting in Seattle

• 

  Starbucks Cafe in Warsaw, Poland, 2014

• 

  Starbucks at Helsinki Airport in Vantaa, Finland, 2018

• 

  Starbucks Drive-Thru at Seremban 2, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia in 2021

• 

  Starbucks inside Fourways Mall, South Africa

• 

  A typical retail area, this one in Bangalore, India, showing a display of food and the beverage preparation area

• 

  Roy Street Coffee & Tea in Seattle, an example of a stealth Starbucks, 2016

• 

  Fair trade coffee beans, pictured here being sorted in 2007, have made up the majority of Starbucks' imports from coffee-producing countries.

• 

  Starbucks's Hear Music Coffeehouse in downtown San Antonio, Texas, 2006

• 

  A line outside "Dumb Starbucks" on February 9, 2014

See also

In Spanish: Starbucks para niños