{"id":61256,"date":"2026-10-29T10:23:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T07:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/?p=61256"},"modified":"2026-10-29T10:23:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T07:23:05","slug":"starbucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/starbucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks: the Seattle coffee company with more than 40,000 stores"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starbucks Corporation is a Seattle-based roaster and retailer of specialty coffee that ended its 2025 fiscal year with 40,990 stores in 89 markets. It buys and roasts arabica coffee and sells drinks, food and packaged coffee through its own coffeehouses, licensed stores and grocery partners.<\/p>\n

The company matters now because it is in the middle of a turnaround. Its “Back to Starbucks” plan, launched in 2024, produced the first rise in global comparable store sales in seven quarters in the period to September 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks:
The Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle, 2023. Photo: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Overview and Founding<\/h3>\n

Starbucks opened its first shop on March 30, 1971, at 2000 Western Avenue in Seattle. Its founders were Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl, and in its first year Siegl was its only employee.<\/p>\n

Howard Schultz joined as marketing director in 1982. In 1987 he and a group of investors bought the company for $3.8 million and began turning it into a chain of coffeehouses, a story told in our profile of Howard Schultz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The listed company, Starbucks Corporation, was formed in 1985 and its shares trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol SBUX.<\/p>\n

Key Milestones<\/h3>\n