Dave Roos
10 Things You Don’t Know About Starbucks (But Should!)
by Dave Roos - March 29, 2010 - 2:20 PM



Starbucks is the coffee icon people either love or love to hate. The Seattle company opened its first shop in 1971, and all these years later, the coffee giant is still brewing up addictive drinks and venti-sized controversy across the globe. Here are 10 things you might not have known about Starbucks.

1. It Could Have Been ‘Pequods’

Nothing says marketing genius like an extremely vague literary reference. At least that was the logic of Starbucks’ original founders — two teachers and a writer — who chose to name their fledgling coffee bean business after a minor character in Moby-Dick.

When the first Starbucks opened in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 1971, it didn’t sell coffee drinks, just beans. The founders wanted to name the place after Captain Ahab’s first mate Starbuck. Right… that guy. Before that, they considered naming it after Ahab’s boat, the Pequod, but changed their mind — according to a Starbucks spokesperson — when a friend tried out the tagline “Have a cup of Pequod.”

2. About That Logo…

At close inspection, the Starbucks logo makes no sense. At closer inspection, it makes even less sense, plus you risk dipping your nose in frap foam. There’s some lady with long hair wearing a crown and holding what appears to be two… giant salmon? Decapitated palm trees? Miniature sand worms from Beetlejuice?

Conspiracy theorists have had a field day with the cryptic image. Anti-Semitic groups have claimed that the crowned maiden is the biblical Queen Esther, proving that Starbucks is behind various Zionist plots. Others see parallels to Illuminati imagery. The real story is less about evil conspiracies than prudish graphic design.

Since Starbucks was named after a nautical character, the original Starbucks logo was designed to reflect the seductive imagery of the sea. An early creative partner dug through old marine archives until he found an image of a siren from a 16th century Nordic woodcut. She was bare-breasted, twin-tailed and simply screamed, “Buy coffee!”

In the ensuing years, Starbucks marketing types decided to tastefully cover up the mer-boobs with long hair, drop the suggestive spread-eagle tail and give the 500-year-old sea witch a youthful facelift. The result? Queen Esther at Sea World.

3. ‘Want a Kidney With That?’

For three years, Annamarie Ausnes was just another Sharpie-scrawled name on a paper cup. She would stop by the same Tacoma, Washington, Starbucks a few times a week for a morning lift and make small talk with barista Sandie Andersen. No one would have called them friends. And no one could have guessed what would happen next.

For 20 years, Ausnes had suffered from polycystic kidney disease, a rare condition that invariably ends in kidney failure. In the fall of 2007, the 55-year-old started feeling weak and her doctor confirmed that her kidneys were only operating at 15%. Any lower and she’d have to go on dialysis. Much like a barroom regular spilling his soul to the bartender, Ausnes shared her sad tale with the friendly barista Andersen, who went above and beyond the call of customer service. Andersen immediately got a blood test, and when she found out she was a match, told Ausnes that she wanted to donate her kidney. A few months later, the two women — barista and casual professional acquaintance — entered the Virginia Mason Medical Center to swap internal organs. The transplant was a success, leaving the only remaining question: how much of a tip do you leave for a kidney?

4. A Starbucks on Every Corner

There are over 16,700 Starbucks locations in more than 50 countries, including Wales, which we’re pretty sure isn’t a country (update: it is a country). During a particularly heady period in the late 1990s and early aughts, Starbucks was opening a new store every workday.

In 2008 and 2009, as millions of Starbucks customers lost their latte money — and their homes, cars and first born children — to the recession, the coffee giant was forced to shrink just a tad. It closed 771 stores worldwide and has plans to close a couple hundred more. Australia was particularly hard-hit, losing 61 of its 84 Starbucks in July 2008. At least they still have giant beer and koalas.

But before you start feeling sorry for the Seattle-based mega-company, consider this statistic gathered by Harper’s magazine in 2002, confirming the nagging suspicion that Starbucks is stalking you: 68 of Manhattan’s 124 Starbucks are located within two blocks (!) of another Starbucks. [Image credit: Starbucks Everywhere]

5. Hand in the Tip Jar

Back in 2008, a San Diego judge ordered Starbucks to pay back $86 million in tips (plus interest) to over 100,000 of its California baristas. For years, Starbucks had a policy of spreading the tip jar love among all employees, even shift supervisors. The cash and coins (and occasional Skittles) were pooled weekly and divvied out according to how many hours the employee had clocked, adding up to an extra $1.71 an hour.

An ex-barista filed a class-action suit in 2006 citing that supervisors aren’t entitled to tips under California law. The Super Court judge agreed, and dropped the $105 million bomb on Starbucks in a curt four-paragraph ruling. Starbucks called the suit “fundamentally unfair and beyond all common sense and reason,” citing the fact that supervisors also make coffee and serve customers.

In a rare win for corporate American (ahem), the judge’s ruling was reversed a year later by the Court of Appeals, who agreed that supervisors “essentially perform the same job as baristas.” Just don’t tell that to their girlfriends.

6. Who’s ‘So Vain’ Now?

Carly Simon is famous for her transparently personal “you-done-me-wrong” ballads in which unnamed exes like Cat Stevens and James Taylor drag her heart through the dirt. But few people expected the 64-year-old crooner to lavish the same overwrought emotion on Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks.

In 2009, Simon filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, claiming the coffee chain had failed to adequately promote her album This Kind of Love, produced and distributed by Starbucks’ house label, Hear Music. But before she called her lawyer, Simon sent a series of handwritten notes to CEO Schultz, including the following quasi-Haiku quoted in the New York Times: “Howard, Fraud is the creation of Faith/ And then the betrayal. Carly.”

For its part, Starbucks said it stocked Simon’s CD at over 7,000 stores, put it on heavy rotation in the droning Starbucks soundtrack and even kept the slow-selling album on the shelves way past its expiration date just to be “nice.” In the end, it was Starbucks’ vice president of brand content Chris Bruzzo who ended up sounding like a Carly Simon song:

“We’re very disappointed that Carly has decided to file this suit because we worked very hard and put a lot of time, and energy, and effort from the music team and thousands of stores behind giving this album its best shot in finding its audience,” Bruzzo said. Put a samba beat to that and he’s got something.

7. ‘Forbidden’ Latte

When a Starbucks affiliate opened a 200-square-foot coffee stand inside the walls of China’s Forbidden City in 2000, the proud nation of 1.3 billion reacted as if someone had spilled a Venti Caramel Macchiato on its collective crotch.

A nationwide survey found that 70% of Chinese thought that a coffee shop had no business in the 600-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site. A news anchor on China’s state-run television even led an online protest to the caffeinated intruder, saying that Starbucks “undermined the Forbidden City’s solemnity and trampled over Chinese culture.”

Turns out that Starbucks only opened the mini-outpost at the invitation of Forbidden City Museum officials who were “testing the waters” for more commercial interests in the 178-acre site. The test concluded that the waters were teeming with coffee-hating Chinese sharks. In 2007, the Forbidden City Starbucks (OK, that does sound a little funny) closed its tiny bamboo doors.

8. Undercover Bux

The owner of Victrola Coffee Roasters in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle knew something was brewing when a team of known Starbucks employees started hanging out at his shop and scribbling notes into a conspicuous folder labeled “OBSERVATIONS.”

A few months later, the Starbucks outlet down the street closed up for renovations. The “slutty mermaid” sign came down and a new one went up: 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. Did someone actually buy out a Starbucks in Seattle? Was this a rare victory for little coffee? What do you think?

This was Starbucks being Starbucks without being Starbucks. The hope is that brand-averse hipsters will ignore the obvious Starbuckiness of the new store and concentrate on the new wine and beer selection (inspired by Victrola). Plans are in the works for additional stealth Starbucks in Seattle.

9. Reading Material

Back in the ’90s, Starbucks tried to sell a paper version of Microsoft’s online magazine Slate, which nobody read. In 1997, it started stocking selections from Oprah’s Book Club, which nobody bought. And in 1999, it tried to publish its very own literary magazine called Joe, a convincingly high-brow, well-written, stylish rag that only lasted three issues.

10. The Starbucks-Peet’s Connection

Remember the first time you saw The Empire Strikes Back? Luke’s right hand goes hurdling down that bottomless vent thingy, he’s holding on for his life, and Vader is going on about the power of the Dark Side. Then he drops the shocker-to-end-all-shockers: “I am your father.” NOOOOOOOOOOO!

All you Peet’s Coffee & Tea fans are about to have your own one-hand Luke moment. Back in 1970, Starbucks co-founder Jerry Baldwin worked at the original Berkeley location of Peet’s, the creator of the American specialty coffee concept. When Baldwin and his buddies Zev Siegel and Gordon Bowker decided to open their own coffee shop in Seattle in 1971, they bought all their raw beans from Alfred Peet.

But here’s the kicker. Baldwin actually bought Peet’s in 1984, then he sold Starbucks in 1987. He was the chairman of Peet’s until 2001 when the store went public and he became the director. In other words, “Peet’s, I am your father!”

So if you’re one of those people who hates Starbucks and loves Peet’s Coffee & Tea or one of those people who hates Peet’s and loves the bux, it turns out you’re only hating yourself.

More from mental_floss…

10 Secret Menu Items at Fast Food Restaurants
*
11 Things Wal-Mart Has Banned
*
Get Rich Quick: 6 People Who Accidentally Found a Fortune
*
Why Does Bottled Water Have an Expiration Date?
*
Vacation to Mars: Photos of Antarctica’s Dry Valleys
*
9 Very Rare (and Very Expensive) Video Game Cartridges

twitterbanner.jpg

shirts-555.jpg

tshirtsubad_static-11.jpg

« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Click here to get a Risk-Free issue of mental_floss magazine
Comments (44)

  1. Seattle’s Best Coffee is owned by starbucks. They seem to keep it very separate cuz you’d never know.

    posted by Robert on 3-29-2010 at 3:01 pm

  2. I believe Starbucks also owns, “Seattle’s Best Coffee” brand.

    posted by Helenann on 3-29-2010 at 3:11 pm

  3. If you donate a kidney to someone, you don’t “swap organs” with them… you just give them one. Sorry to be nit-picky, but it is inaccurate.

    posted by Carolyn on 3-29-2010 at 3:21 pm

  4. I want to quibble with Starbuck being a minor character in Moby Dick. He’s fairly important as a foil to Captain Ahab. I’ll agree it’s a vague literary reference, though. Mainly because not enough people read that great novel.

    posted by Dana Huff on 3-29-2010 at 3:24 pm

  5. I look forward to the day when the chains are out of business and all stores are run by old married couples who put in twenty hour days, seven days a week, like in the really old movies.

    posted by Emerson on 3-29-2010 at 3:30 pm

  6. @Dana:
    Judging by #9, not enough people read much of anything.

    posted by amaneaux on 3-29-2010 at 4:37 pm

  7. Good call, Emerson. Nothing I want more with my coffee than guilt as Grandma and Grandpa slave away to serve frothy drinks to a bunch of over-privileged stay-at-home moms who are too busy ignoring their children and blathering about the latest trendy inanities to tip said old married couple.

    No, let me go to a faceless corporate behemoth where I can grumble about the service without feeling like a heel.

    End of rant. ;-)

    posted by Dennis Miller on 3-29-2010 at 4:46 pm

  8. Starbucks actually promotes small, local coffee shops to step up their game. Starbucks are good for areas because it creates competition and competition is a good thing.

    Here’s a video about it
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpco64tPUKA

    posted by Laura on 3-29-2010 at 5:35 pm

  9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpco64tPUKA

    This video shows that Starbucks is good for small local coffee shops. It creates competition which is a good thing and in doing so makes the local shops step up their game. Consumers choose and there’s room for both big chains and small.

    posted by Laura on 3-29-2010 at 5:37 pm

  10. great article, and yes, i like Starbucks.

    mental floss rocks and the quality of writing and humor is excellent! thank you!!!

    posted by bitkahuna on 3-29-2010 at 5:37 pm

  11. Wait a minute…people really didn’t recognise the Starbucks Lady was a mermaid (or something like it)?

    I had more trouble trying to figure out how “Starbuck’s” had anything to do with a mythical creature. Ok so once upon a time there was a connection to Moby Dick….but, then I’d expect a whale, and that’s a pretty frickin’ obscure factoid to boot.

    Zionist conspiracy? Wha..I..well, I guess I’ll be wearing my tin-foil hat to protect against OTHER conspiracy theorists. May I never become that stupid.

    posted by Vastad on 3-29-2010 at 6:43 pm

  12. For some reason, even though I never heard of the origins of the name or anything about the logo, I always figured the girl in the logo was a mermaid.

    Not only an interesting article but well written, thanks.

    posted by Sarah in CA on 3-29-2010 at 8:15 pm

  13. In Insadong in Seoul, South Korea English signs are not allowed because of traditional area so Starbucks must use Korean alphabet. http://www.flickr.com/photos/superlocal/1447708219/

    posted by 천사 on 3-29-2010 at 8:27 pm

  14. The Starbucks in downtown Missoula closed a few months ago. Is it crazy to anyone else that they charge for wireless? I’m convinced this is why they went out of the bean business.

    posted by Weirdbeard on 3-29-2010 at 9:25 pm

  15. Its a siren. Just as they would seduce sailors with their singing, the coffee seduces the guests.

    Its a term that is used in several of their corporate items including their retail set up, called the Sirens eye.

    The only time you really get to see the original Siren is when they do their Anniversary blend in late summer/early fall.

    posted by Mindy on 3-29-2010 at 10:24 pm

  16. No mention of the more recent controversy about Starbucks and gun owners? How some were protesting outside stores because corporate policy says it’s up to individual stores (and state law) whether people with concealed handgun permits can buy their venti frappes?

    That was an unexpected bit of news, for sure.

    posted by Tracie on 3-29-2010 at 10:55 pm

  17. I worked for sbux for 5 yrs they do own seattles best 2.

    posted by sbux girl on 3-29-2010 at 10:56 pm

  18. So was the whole “We don’t think Wales is a country” a joke?

    posted by Dave on 3-29-2010 at 11:45 pm

  19. And all this time I thought the company was named after “Bill Starbuck” the main character from The Rainmaker.
    Never could figure out, if the company was named after The Rainmaker, why the “Bride of Neptune” (my name for her) was on the logo.

    posted by M. Forrest on 3-30-2010 at 12:21 am

  20. “Plans are in the works for two more stealth Starbucks in Seattle.”

    a) they aren’t very stealth. Starbucks has been pretty open that they own them. They are experimenting with non-same Starbucks coffee shops. The idea being to have some local flavor in these shops. Can it be scaled? Will it be profitable? But it hasn’t been particularly stealthy.

    b) they copied their decor from the next door Smith, an upscale pub-food place.

    c) one of the “planned” stealth Starbucks, Roy Street Coffee and Tea, about a mile away on the other side of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, opened six months ago.

    posted by King Rat on 3-30-2010 at 12:21 am

  21. The stat about the New York Starbucks is interesting, but you left out one of the better examples of Starbucks dominance. There are currently three separate Starbucks at the intersection of Grey and Shepard in Houston, Texas. Two are freestanding, the other is inside a Barnes and Noble. Ahh, corporate greed is a wonderful thing.

    posted by Justin on 3-30-2010 at 1:43 am

  22. there are still too many starbucks branches in australia, particularly in melbourne where the folk are serious about their coffee

    posted by liz on 3-30-2010 at 10:05 am

  23. Hey Laura,
    You sound like you work for Starbucks. Do feel the same about competition vis-a-vis corporations like Wal Mart?

    posted by bubba on 3-30-2010 at 10:27 am

  24. The bit about Peet’s is interesting. I recently visited San Francisco for the first time and commented to my traveling companions that (due to the terrible taste of the coffee) it was like the “Starbucks of San Francisco.”

    posted by Aaron on 3-30-2010 at 10:40 am

  25. Good timing, _floss! I just got back from a long weekend in Seattle.

    One more thing to add regarding their original logo: they still allow it to be used at their first store down at the Pike Place Market. But that’s the only location allowed to do so.

    posted by John on 3-30-2010 at 11:32 am

  26. Starbucks is not franchised, that is, all stores are either owned by the company or licensed (licensed stores are usu. inside a grocery store).

    posted by specular on 3-30-2010 at 11:36 am

  27. I don’t bother with Starbucks, I think the coffee tastes terrible.

    I do think it’s funny that next to the famed Russian Tea Room in Manhattan, there is a Starbucks.

    posted by Wayne on 3-30-2010 at 11:43 am

  28. The original Siren is still visible on the logo for the Pike Place Roast that is the house blend in most Starbucks. Check out the bag sometime!

    I worked at Starbucks for a few months when I was between jobs, and they are not quiet at all about the other companies they own. When I was in training, I was given a list of all of the companies that Starbucks either owns or works with. Besides Peet’s Coffee, they own Ethos water and Tazo Tea.

    A random fact: If you purchase a pound of Starbucks in a Starbucks store, it’s manufactured by Starbucks. Purchase pre-ground Starbucks in a grocery store, it’s manufactured by Kraft.

    posted by Amauriel on 3-30-2010 at 2:43 pm

  29. A good while ago (and maybe now, I haven’t been there in ages), there was a Starbucks in the West Village from which you could see another Starbucks. Having them two blocks apart, I can handle. Close enough to see one another, not so much.

    posted by Deek on 3-30-2010 at 4:22 pm

  30. The reason why Starbucks Coffee shops closed in Australia is two-fold…
    1.) the Italians who migrated to Australia in the 1950′s showed us how to make good coffee… and Starbucks “coffee” belongs on long-haul flights. If you have a franchise, and it’s going backwards, you get out of the franchise… people in Australia are used to good coffee, not the crap that is stewed in glass jars for hours… that is what Starbucks is judged against, in the US… so that’s why Starbucks failed (and will fail) to gain any significant market penetration in Australia.
    2.) It takes YEARS to gain a genuine BARISTA accreditation, in a genuine coffee market (again, not USA)
    …and if you would like to try out a nice blend: 50% Maragagype dark, 30% New Guinea highland,20% Jamacan blue hills… rich, creamy. and nutty!
    (oh, I have been making coffees for 30+ years)

    posted by zenraga on 3-30-2010 at 5:49 pm

  31. Is Wales a Principality?
    Hence why Wales is not represented on the Union Flag.

    posted by Brett on 3-31-2010 at 8:17 am

  32. At one point, Starbucks was actually opening SEVEN stores a day.

    posted by Merro on 3-31-2010 at 12:08 pm

  33. There is a Starbucks next door to a grocery store that has a Starbucks inside the grocery store, Safeway. Are people that lazy they can’t walk next door if they really want coffee?

    posted by Gina on 4-1-2010 at 2:41 am

  34. Starbucks is nothing but a huge joke in New Zealand. Like Australians, Kiws *love* really really good coffee. Lots of fabulous coffee shops can be found all around the country.

    posted by Logan on 4-1-2010 at 4:52 am

  35. I know this is gonna sound superbly snobby, but there’s a pretty obvious connection to the siren. After all the company is named after a sailor and sirens (DEF NOT mermaids!!!!) used to seduce sailors.

    I like Starbucks, I like knowing i can go to a coffee shop and when I order I’m gonna get what I want. It’s comforting when I’m no longer in my own town. But that said if I’m in my town I’ll visit our local (and right down the street) coffee shop.

    posted by tess on 4-2-2010 at 11:17 am

  36. I used to work for Starbucks, and during our training the corporate people said that its a siren, beckoning people into the store.

    posted by Alexis on 4-23-2010 at 6:31 pm

  37. Laura wrote:
    “….Starbucks is good for small local coffee shops. It creates competition which is a good thing and in doing so makes the local shops step up their game. Consumers choose and there’s room for both big chains and small.”

    That’s provided they let them stay in business.

    Starbucks vs. HaidaBucks

    Starbucks vs. Sambucks

    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 4-28-2010 at 5:52 pm

  38. For some reason, the second link didn’t work (it would be nice if there was a preview or edit function on these comments). Let’s try it again:

    Starbucks vs. Sambucks

    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 4-28-2010 at 5:55 pm

  39. Hey Dave, Sorry couldn’t figure another way to talk to you. I read your article re: press conferences and figured you might be able to help me answer a question. Do you know what the hidden rules or policies are in regards to offering product samples to press conference attendees (i.e., journalists)? Are they allowed to accept product samples and still write the story? Or can they only do it if they acknowledge that a “gift” was provided? Is this a generic rule or is it one determined by each individual publication/media outlet? Can you give me any advice re: this as I’m planning a press conference and need to knonw if it’s ok to send a gift card with the invite giving the writers an essential “gift certificate” that’s good for one “service” (it’s nothing skanky…just beauty related services)Thank you so much, Emily

    posted by Emily on 11-6-2010 at 4:22 pm

  40. yes it is a siren not a mermaid and it is Starbucks after the coffee loving sailor Starbuck from moby dick I cant believe with all the people that have worked there no one has gotten this answer. crazy people with silly plots and slutty mermaids get a clue…

    posted by jennifer on 11-17-2010 at 10:19 pm

  41. In our local strip mall plaza, there are 3 Starbucks….one in the grocery store, one in target and one freestanding. Odd that they are all in business–Rhode Island is a pretty Dunkin’ Donuts loyal state, and most other Starbucks in the area have closed.

    posted by Kate on 12-21-2010 at 8:22 pm

  42. That’s funny about Peet’s coffee. When I stopped going out and started making coffee at home I liked Peet’s a lot because it reminded me the most of Starbucks. Who knew.

    posted by Manda Moore on 4-15-2011 at 11:43 pm

  43. Vader Never Says “I Am Your Father”…..

    posted by Aliah on 6-19-2011 at 10:34 pm

  44. What about the fact that Barnes & Noble has a Starbuck’s in every store?

    posted by Cyberjar88 on 10-14-2011 at 3:10 pm

Comment

commenting policy