From Corner Café to Coffee Kingpin
Being instantly synonymous with an industry is a rare achievement in business, but there are certainly examples, typically having achieved this level of notoriety by innovating something so integral in the industry that the name gains permanence. Ford, Apple, Amazon…these words have other meanings, and yet when we hear them, we don’t think of fording rivers, Isaac Newton’s inspiration, nor a jungle in South America, respectively. We immediately associate these words with the world-changing car company, one of the most innovative and dominant tech corporations of the 21st century, and the largest online retailer on the planet. These instinctual associations come from the companies’ global fame and recognition, but also because they have become ingrained in our daily lives. Although not everyone drives a Ford, most people drive cars, which can be traced back to the founding of that groundbreaking company in 1903. More than 100 million homes in America own an Apple product, and Amazon ships approximately 3 million boxes every day. Those companies have clearly formed a niche in our lives, a permanent relationship that is unlikely to deteriorate or be forgotten for many years, even if the occasional customer switches to riding a bike, owning a PC, or ceasing their online shopping habits.
Another part of daily life for billions of people around the globe is coffee. More than 500 billion cups of coffee are drunk on this planet each year, an amount so staggering that it’s difficult to comprehend. There are thousands of coffee companies out there, ranging from independent single location retailers and ancient cafes on Parisian avenues to globally recognized brands that offer caffeine fixes from Palm Springs to Ethiopia. However, only one company has opened an average of two stores every day since 1987 – Starbucks. Just as with the corporate kings listed above, Starbucks has become interchangeable with “coffee”, as you so often hear and hardly notice – “Do you want a Starbucks?” or “I’m going to get a Starbucks”. For millions of people in America alone, Starbucks is a part of their daily life, either in the form of a necessity, a temptation, or a treat. Regardless of the relationship that people have with the company, one thing is clear: Starbucks has ingratiated itself into cultural identity and has ingrained its products in the hearts and minds of coffee drinkers around the world.
