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Starbucks unveils logo, celebrates 40 years

Starbucks baristas and employees at corporate headquarters celebrate new logo with CEO Howard Schultz on March 8, 2011.
Starbucks
Starbucks baristas and employees at corporate headquarters celebrate new logo with CEO Howard Schultz on March 8, 2011.

In 40 years it went from a tiny store near Pike Place Market to a global brand, recognized around the world.  Starbucks is celebrating its  anniversary with a new, simplified logo that doesn’t have the word "Starbucks" or "coffee" on it. 

On Tuesday, a band played and hundreds of employees gathered and cheered as the logo was unveiled at Starbucks headquarters in Seattle.  CEO Howard Schultz told the crowd there were many doubters in the beginning who didn’t think Starbucks could ever go beyond the West Coast. "But they were wrong," he said.

Melissa Allison writes in the Seattle Times that Schultz reminded employees that he is not the founder of Starbucks.

The company was started in 1971 across the street from Pike Place Market by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl. Two of them, Baldwin and Bowker, went on to buy Peet's Coffee in the Bay Area, and Baldwin still sits on its board. Two of them, Bowker and Siegl, still live in Seattle.

The vision for creating a vast network of coffeehouses came from Schultz, who started working at Starbucks in 1982 as director of retail operations marketing.

On Tuesday, the coffee company's stock price climbed 41 cents to $34.01, near a 52-week high.

Paula is a former host, reporter and producer who retired from KNKX in 2021. She joined the station in 1989 as All Things Considered host and covered the Law and Justice beat for 15 years. Paula grew up in Idaho and, prior to KNKX, worked in public radio and television in Boise, San Francisco and upstate New York.