Do any of you know how Starbucks actually chooses its locations? Or more specifically: Does it have a litmus test for where it won’t/will locate? The flip side of having two across the street is that some respectable-enough-looking neighborhoods get completely bypassed. Anyone have any insights into, or references to other sources that might have looked at, how Starbucks decides a neighborhood makes its cut…is it the look of a hood? the average income? the demographic makeup? Perhaps another way of putting this: Are there neighborhoods where Starbucks might make an okay dollar (especially as it finds itself supersaturated in the neighborhoods where it’s locating franchises across the street from each other) but where Starbucks just wouldn’t deign to locate, for reasons having to do with its own cachet? And I don’t mean just inner-city war zones. I’ve noticed hoods that aren’t totally done up, but home to a fair number of yuppie latte lovers, and also fairly full of non-brand coffee shops, but that for whatever reason — a streetscape that isn’t fully spit-and-polished yet? a population that hasn’t hit Starbucks’ tipping point of desirability? — is Starbucks free.Love to hear any insights, or pointers to those (academics? sociologists? urban theorists?) who might have them.

Cheers as I sip on my homemade morning cuppa bulk-bought beans,
Victor in Canada

I’m not particularly picky about coffee but there’s one truck stop in PA that I swear I will never get coffee at again. It was absoluely horrible, luke-warm, watery, and bitter.

But cheap is good. I can put down 65c Sheetz coffee as easily at $2 SBUX.

And, yeah, plenty of people wouldn’t cross the street for a cup of coffee but would occasionally stop in for a cup if it was convenient. Not all people are addicted to the extent that they’ll go any distance for their fix. I’m a casual consumer of coffee myself. When I worked in a building without a Starbucks (though there was one nearby), I never drank Starbucks coffee. Now that I do work in such a building, I stop in once every month or two.

Others like coffee, but aren’t picky about brand. I am not picky about the brand myself either. If I get a jones for coffee, I’ll just get whatever’s most convenient, which may be Tully’s or SBC or some other brand. So, it’s to Starbucks benefit to have as many stores as possible so I’ll be more likely to choose one of theirs. (Since I mentioned it, SBC is another way Starbucks can expand, as they own that company. While I’m not, there are enough people who are brand-sensitive that putting an SBC across the street from a Starbucks might make good sense.)

So anyway, between the too-busy stores and the casual and non-brand-sensitive consumers, I don’t doubt that there is room for even more growth.

However, I can understand this in isolated circumstances (i.e. Huge Cities). This is already the case, though, in most of those situations. Chicago, New York, Seatlle, Los Angeles and London already have Starbucks across the street from each other.

Still, there are plenty of SBUX stores out there that you may not even realize they exist. I don’t work for SBUX, but I do some work for them through a company that I contract for (on the side), and they are in just about every decent sized hotel in downtown Indianapolis, not to mention the other stores that are easily seen just by walking down the street.

Have these guys ever taken an economics class? You go for the “low hanging fruit” first, then you tackle some other opportunities… but there is a point where the scale of economies works against you and it take twice the effort to do half the work, when expanding. I would think that they have hit that point in the US, for the most part.

You just gotta love that Lewis Black.