Starbucks Hits the Big Four-Oh

Posted by Daniel on Mar 17, 2011 - 6 comments

Coffee giant Starbucks is the subject of today's trivia question.

It has been forty years since the company opened its first outlet in Seattle on March 30, 1971. But my question for you is, where was the first Starbucks in British Columbia?

If you said the old CPR Station in downtown Vancouver, give yourself a grande caramel machiatto (you know, I've never had any idea what that is). The chain came to Canada on March 1, 1987, opening the small store in Waterfront Station which is still busy at that location. That's 24 years ago, meaning a generation of young Vancouver coffee drinkers has grown up not knowing a world without Starbucks.

Not only was it the first outlet in BC, it was the first anywhere in Canada. The chain did not move into Ontario until January 20, 1988, when it opened five outlets in and around Toronto.