Weird Facts about Starbucks & Howard Schutlz, the CEO who built the Empire of Starbucks worldwide
Starbucks is arguably the most notable and abundant coffee brand worldwide. Whichever country you visit, you may note a Starbucks in the corner of airport.
South Korea rapidly became one of the largest coffee markets in the world. It has been growing at a rapid rate and during the year 2017 already, in average, a person in South Korea consumes 512 cups of coffee annually.
In Seoul only, you may be able to locate at least one coffee shop in every ally you take a step in. Despite the expansion of the coffee market in South Korea, Starbucks still stands as one of the most notable coffee shop / café in South Korea.
What are some weird facts about Starbucks and who is Howard Schutlz, the architect of building the empire of Starbucks?
Howard Schutlz’s trip to Italy – Start of the dream
People from all over the world just horrifies Italians when it comes to Italian dishes and beverages.
Already all sorts of pasta recipes and ‘spaghetti’ recipes are just enough to provoke an Italian. However, it even easier to make an Italian faint by simply holding an ‘iced’ coffee.
The term ‘café’ which means ‘coffee’ or ‘coffee house’ originates from the French café and the Italian term caffee.
After Howard Schutlz travels in Italy at 1983 after joining Starbucks in 1982, he was fascinated with the experiences with the cafés and coffee houses in Italy especially in Milan where he wanted to exploit such fascinating experiences in the United States of America.
The fresh scent of coffee, local gatherings and connection between humans that he experienced in Italy inspired him to form the basis of Starbucks.[1]
Starbuck size naming convention – Why are they so weird – Short / Tall / Grande / Venti / Trenta
While holding an ‘iced’ coffee would be just enough to frustrate an Italian, it would even be more frustrating for Italians to order the coffee size they want at Starbucks. ‘Grande’ means ‘large’ in Italian, ‘Venti’ means ’20, twenty’ in Italian while ‘Trenta’ means ’30, thirty’ in Italian.
The size names in Starbucks are already very confusing enough for an Italian as you could see. Why does Starbucks have such a weird naming convention?
There were only two types of sizes ‘Short’ and ‘Tall’ in Starbucks at first. However, as sugar demand and presumably demand in caffeine increased, Starbucks had to introduce an even larger beverage size.
As Starbucks attempted to expand the Italian coffee experience, Starbucks introduced ‘Grande’ which means ‘large’ in Italian to satisfy even larger demands. However, an even larger demand kicked in where Starbucks had to introduce another concept for a larger size.
Starbucks made up the size ‘Venti’ which means the number ‘twenty’ ‘20’ in Italian. Starbucks named it Venti because the size they made was 24 oz(ounces) which is close to the number twenty.
Starbucks even had to make the ‘Trenta’ size which means the number 30, thirty in Italian for non-coffee drinks. The Trenta size offers 31 oz(ounces) of beverage.
Although the Italian naming convention of Starbucks may not concur exactly within the United States, in terms of global operations it seems to concur with the Italian names.
For example, in South Korea Starbucks, Short is 237mL, Tall is 355mL, Grande is 473 mL and Venti is 591 mL. As 1 ounce is about 29.5 mL(Actually in reality it should be in weight but everything doesn’t run by exact definition). If you divide 591mL to 29.5, you could get about 20 oz(ounces).
The annual revenue of Starbucks and number of branches
As of 2022, Starbucks is estimated to have over 35,000 branches worldwide currently under operation. The revenue in terms of 2022, Starbuck’s annual revenue is 23.84 billion dollars.
Russian Starducks – Russian-Ukraine War
Due to the sanctions and embargo on Russia due to the Russian-Ukraine War, in Russia occupied Sevastopol in Crimea, Starducks became a branch that would substitute Starbucks.
Similar branches such as Crimea Fried Chicken that attempts to replace KFC and DonMak which tries to replace McDonalds are some weird copycat brands currently operating in Crimea and other regions in Russia.
The first Starbucks and the origins of Starbucks
Zev Siegl, Jerry Baldwin, and Gordon Bowker started the first Starbucks in Pike Place Market, Seattle United States of America on 1971. These men had a background in literature but they thought that the coffee business would expand in the United States of America.
The three received advises from Alfred Peet who was the founder of ‘Peet’s Coffee’ which is another iconic coffee retail brand that was one of the initiators of the coffee business in the US.
[2] While Zev Seigl, Jerry Baldwin, and Gordon Bowker discussed what the brand name of their coffee shop would be, they met up with another artist Terry Heckler to determine their brand name.
Everyone was inspired by the novel Moby-Dick which is an American Classic written by Herman Melville. Initially, they thought about naming the coffee brand as the Pequod which was the name of the Nantucket whaling ship in Moby-Dick. However, they all agreed it wouldn’t be appealing to consumers.
Eventually, the brand was named after the first-mate of the Pequod whose name was ‘Starbuck’. This became the start of the legendary coffee brand.[3]
Origins of the symbol of Starbucks
After the brand name of Starbucks was inspired by the novel Moby-Dick, the founders wondered how to design the symbol of Starbucks.
The founders of Starbucks though it was necessary to connect the brand with the local atmosphere.
As Seattle was one of the largest port cities in the United States of America and coffee were shipped from vast distances overseas, the founders were very eager to find their inspiration from old marine-time stories.
They wanted something mysterious and exceptional from the old marine-time stories and came up with the stories of the sirens. Sirens were mystical creatures that would seduce sailors with beautiful songs.
The siren became the symbol of Starbucks. The symbol would be renovated multiple times.
Howard Schultz – Start of the Starbucks legends
Howard Schutlz made his first visit to Starbucks in 1981 in the first Starbucks store in Seattle’s Pike Place. He was fascinated by the fine coffee in Starbucks and eventually joined Starbucks as the director of Operations and Marketing in 1982.
After Howard Schutlz spent time in Italy experiencing the Italian’s romance with coffee, he dreamt of sharing this experience through Starbucks with the whole United States.
He eventually would open his own coffee house and acquire Starbucks in 1987. After expanding Starbucks all across United States of America and forming the initial foundation of Starbucks’s expansion worldwide, Howard Schutlz stepped down as CEO.
However, he returned as CEO during the economic crisis after of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008. Starbucks’s value plundered during this period and Howard Schutlz returned to save Starbucks from crisis.
He led the aggressive campaigns in China and worldwide which led to the marvelous comeback and aggressive growth of Starbucks once again.
Howard would retire once more but would return back to lead operations of Starbucks. Howard Schutlz is the founder of the Schutlz Family Foundation and emes project LLC and he is trying to make the world a better place even now.[4]
Secret of the Starbucks Logo
Multiple psychology studies and accumulated histories prove that people actually treat ‘perfect symmetry’ as ‘weird’ and ‘unnatural’.
Thus, even though people try to keep symmetry, perfect symmetry is never achieved and perfect symmetry actually makes people uncomfortable and gives an unstable perception. The Starbucks siren logo is asymmetric as the renovated gave an unpleasant feeling to people.
Why tables in Starbucks are round & you don’t necessarily need to order a beverage in Starbucks
If you ever noticed the shape of the tables in Starbucks, unlike other brands, most tables are round. This is an important business policy by Starbucks because on a round table there aren’t any empty seats even one person sits alone and there aren’t any right angles which make even a single person less lonely.
To prevent customers who came alone feel lonely, Starbucks exclusively places a lot of round tables within their stores.
Also, you don’t necessarily need to order a beverage to be in a Starbucks store per the current Starbucks business policy. While some coffee shops might have a one beverage per person is mandatory policy, Starbucks wants their consumers to feel comfortable as much as possible while waiting or make an atmosphere to welcome anyone.
Starbucks on Aircraft Carriers
Even on some of the United States of America Navy aircraft carriers, there are operational Starbucks store onboard. Gerald R. Ford-Class Aircraft carriers have about 5,000 ~ 6,000 operators onboard. There are many facilities to withhold these many personnel for long periods of operations as well..
Aircraft carriers such as USS Harry S. Truman and the USS Eisenhower which are Gerald R. Ford-Class aircraft carriers have a Starbucks store in operation to support United States of America navy personnel.
[1] “Howard Schultz.” Encyclopædia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Howard-Schultz. Accessed 2 July 2023.
[2] “Our Name.” Our Name | Starbucks Archive, archive.starbucks.com/record/our-name. Accessed 2 July 2023.
[3] “Our Name.” Our Name | Starbucks Archive, archive.starbucks.com/record/our-name. Accessed 3 July 2023
[4] “Howard Schultz.” Starbucks Stories, stories.starbucks.com/leadership/howard-schultz/. Accessed 3 July 2023.
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