Introduction
Starbucks initiated as a gourmet coffee roasting company that started in Seattle over forty years ago. The market at that time had been dominated by the brands that were marketed in the supermarkets that include Maxwell House and Folgers. At the time that Starbucks started its operations, the coffee consumption on a per capita basis was declining. In the decades of the 1980s and the 1990s, the higher quality coffee beans and the specialty coffee began to develop a niche of loyal followers. Starbucks was purchased by Howard Schultz in 1987. Schultz envisioned creating a coffee culture that was similar to the coffee ...
