One Man Tries to Visit Every Starbucks
Friday, September 25, 2026176 words3 minutes368 reads
Winter began a strange personal mission in 1997: to visit every company-owned Starbucks in the world. He calls it Starbucking. Nearly 29 years later, the goal has turned into a long-term travel project.
On his website, Winter lists 20,595 stores visited. His list includes 15,524 stores in the United States and Canada, as well as locations in other parts of the world. He keeps records of the shops he has visited.
His rules are strict. A location counts only when he personally enters it and drinks coffee. A shop seen from a car, an airport window or a street does not count. He focuses on company-owned stores, rather than every place that sells Starbucks drinks.
The hard part is that the target changes. Starbucks can open stores, close stores or change locations. Winter is trying to reach a finish line that keeps moving. His story is not only about coffee. It asks what can happen when a hobby becomes a life project: the goal may be impossible to complete, but the journey can still have meaning.
