In 1987, Starbucks opened outside Seattle in Vancouver and which U.S. city? The U.S. city was Chicago.
That year marked Starbucks' first expansion beyond its Seattle base. The company opened a location at Waterfront Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, and another in Chicago, Illinois. These openings showed that the brand was beginning to move beyond its Pacific Northwest origins.
The expansion followed Howard Schultz's 1987 acquisition of Starbucks through his company Il Giornale. Schultz retained the Starbucks name and pursued a broader coffeehouse model, helping the chain grow from a local bean retailer into a café business.
Chicago is sometimes confused with other early Starbucks markets, including cities in California and Oregon. However, the historical pairing for the company's first non-Seattle locations is Vancouver and Chicago. By 1989, Starbucks had expanded to dozens of stores across the Pacific Northwest and Midwest.