Starbucks - Circle Mall

About Starbucks - Circle Mall

Our story begins in 1971 along the cobblestone streets of Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. It was here where Starbucks opened its first store, offering fresh-roasted coffee beans, tea, and spices from around the world for our customers to take home. Our name was inspired by the classic tale, Moby-Dick evoking the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders. Ten years later, a young New Yorker named Howard Schultz walked through these doors and became captivated by Starbucks coffee from his first sip. After joining the company in 1982, a different cobblestone road would lead him to another discovery. It was on a trip to Milan in 1983 that Howard first experienced Italy’s coffeehouses, and he returned to Seattle inspired to bring the warmth and artistry of its coffee culture to Starbucks. By 1987, we swapped our brown aprons for green ones and embarked on our next chapter as a coffeehouse.