Who would have thought that $5 cups of coffee would sell like hotcakes (that means a lot and very fast)? Not this farmer, that's for sure! But the people behind Starbucks figured it out. From its founding in 1971 in Seattle, Washington the initial store has expanded into more than 10,000 locations world wide. Even my little town has recently been blessed by getting a Starbucks.

Now some random but interesting facts about Starbucks:

They are listed on NASDAQ as SBUX.

It is named after a character in Moby Dick

The founders are: Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel, and Gordon Bowker.

Baldwin and Siegel were teachers.

They purchase about 3% of all coffee beans grown world wide.

Lewis Black has an extremely funny bit about seeing a Starbucks across the street from another Starbucks.

They call their employees baristas, which is the Italian word for "bartender".

Even though they try to provide a good workplace, they have been involved in numerous labor disputes.

I got 39,800,000 hits with a Google search on "starbucks".

I haven't looked at them all.

This is their home page: http://www.starbucks.com

Good luck and good Joe.

Learn more about this author, Farmer Bob.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about How Starbucks achieved its amazing success?
We want to hear your view. Write now!