Opening up in Seattle in 1971, Starbucks’ aim was to share coffee with friends and to “make the world a better place”.
Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, joined the group in the early 80s. After a trip to Italy, he fell in love with the coffee shop culture there, which created a sense of community as a meeting spot for locals. He was inspired to create this culture in the States and to cut a long story short, the late 80s saw the rise of Starbucks. From there they expanded and sprouted up all over the globe, and now Starbucks is probably the most recognisable coffee brand.
The coffee shop has taken its sweet time before coming to SA and perhaps a decade ago (before Vida é caffe, Seattle, Truth and other thriving SA coffee shops), the country would’ve welcomed the green lady with open arms. But today we are so spoilt for choice, and the choice includes many artisinal roasteries that are making some really good coffee. Our coffee culture has also become our own, it’s unique to SA, but there is also something exciting about seeing that big green logo enter our market.
Here’s footage of the flash mob at the Rosebank launch this morning:
Mixed reactions were felt on Twitter. Here is what people had to say and some photo’s of the opening: