I believe it was 1993, probably right after the Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) IPO. At the time, I worked in downtown Vancouver B.C. and one day a tourist from Toronto asked me to take a picture of her in front of a Starbucks. This picture, she said after thanking me, will make all her friends back east really jealous. I thought she was nuts.

Vancouver had Starbucks stores as early as 1987, but the hype really started in the early 90s. Personally, I never liked Starbucks coffee. The strong roasted flavor wasn't to my taste, not to mention I felt Starbucks promoted a stuck-up atmosphere to allow it to charge outrageous prices for a cup of coffee I didn't even want. Seems I was in the minority, and Starbucks went on to become a true success story. People liked the coffee and the upscale atmosphere.

Starbucks grew fast, opening more and more locations, until the growth affected the business. From an upscale atmosphere where baristas prepared espressos and other specialty coffees, machines were brought in and no doubt the coffee lost some of its taste, not to mention value in the eye of the consumer. A corporate atmosphere replaced the intimate coffee-shop one, especially with the introduction of sandwiches and breakfast. Locations were cannibalizing each others' profits, and lately, to pour salt on the loyal customers wounds who stuck with the company and paid $3+ for coffee, it started experimenting with $1 coffees -- Star ... buck?