Starbucks Corp. Thursday raised its long-term expansion goal to 40,000 stores from 30,000 and said it was nowhere close to exhausting opportunities in North America, even as possibilities appear internationally. Long term expansion goal is more than 3 times current size.

The world's largest coffee shop chain had 12,241 locations at the end of fiscal 2006, which ended Oct. 1, and $7.8 billion in full-year revenue. – CNN/ SEATTLE (Reuters)

That should take it from one Starbuck store in every corner to one every few blocks.
Now I’m really ‘motivated’ to pay $3.00 for a cup of java. Don’t you miss when coffee was less than .50cents a cup?

I only read about half of that because I got distracted by your avatar. Nice.

yeh, but back then, you were just paying for coffee. now yr paying for the *experience*. and 3 bucks + to get anally fisted is quite an experience, i'm told.

they really do have the best soy lattes.

so there's still more mcdonalds' out there than starbucks? really? Are they only putting starbucks in the coastal cities, 3 to an intersection?

Go buy a $.69 cup of coffee at Waffle House and tell me it is nearly as good.

In flyover country (where I live) I tend to see the Garbucks around teh corner from me as manna from heaven, not an anal fisting.

yeah, damn that environmentally sound, socially aware corporation! Damn you and your great employee benefits and successful business model!.

barista power!


dude, I don't really go to them unless at a rest stop, but there's much, much worse things out there than more starbucks.

How many of you pantywaists drink black coffee anyways?

Buy a mug, get refills, drink black coffee.

Coffee at the gas station costs you a buck and is just hot brown water. Coffee mug refill at Starbucks is 50 cents more, tastes great, and actually has caffeine. Plus it's the zero calorie treat, and you don't have to doctor it up like that gas station swill with cream and loads of sugar that will give you trucker ass.

Besides Starbucks, Walmart has comparable employee benefits and is just as evironmentally sound- and socially aware if not more, not to mention the greatest successful business model. But I still see lots of communities protesting when Walmart Execs. come to town fishing for new location.

that cuz walmart leaves a huge footprint. starbucks does not. we have successfully kept walmart from opening any new stores around here for the past few years. starbucks still dominates, however.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/starbucks/index.cfm

"Similarly, while Starbucks has slowly bought more certified Fair Trade coffee, it represents only a very small percentage of their total coffee (about 3.7%). Starbucks rarely offers certified Fair Trade coffee as their coffee of the day, nor has it followed its own policy of brewing Fair Trade coffee, on demand."

i'm pretty sure that this is not true. I know that Wal-mart's health insurance is very expensive, and I'm willing to bet their wages are lower.

I heard about this. Where I am at there is basically one or two in Virginia Beach, one in Portsmouth, one in Chesapeake. As opposed to San Jose California that had about 70 (slight, slight exaggeration).

They were talking about this on NPR also saying that Dunkin Donuts' goal is to triple their stores in the country as well.

If they can do it, go for it. It's not like it's some political scam where they fund these new stores. "we" buy it. "We" like it. "we" will have to stop buying it to stop them from expanding. Pretty simple really.

Because there just aren't enough Starbucks in the US and North America...


And Phil...
I like my coffee like I like my women: hot and in a big cup.

i LOVE starbucks....

also with the 2 dollar price tag......that seems to be the norm for most coffee places (small and large)

I think that's what the point of the venture is based on. You got that nail, right on the head, hombre.

If nothing else Starbucks got people demanding more from coffee and got a lot more places selling decent coffee. Easier and cheaper to just make a pot at home though than go pay a couple bucks for a cup.

And, I too like my coffee the way I like my women...bitter.

I only pay $1.25 for a cup at my favorite coffee house, which happens to be two blocks from the only Starbucks in downtown. Then I pay a .25 for each refill.

I'm pretty sure there are more Subways than anything else.
McDonalds coffee is only .99 depending on the size, but it's not always fresh and doesn't taste like candy.

truth is everyone can handle a hot cup of coffee but you know how hard it is keeping a hot woman away from all the Piranhas out there?

personally, it's the homogenization of this world that bothers me. if other people dont mind the strip malling of america, that's fine, it's their choice to either be down with it or not.
for me, i like the idea of local flavor & culture when i go diff't places, not the prospect of getting a fucking mcrib in dubai.

The trick is to be the pirhana.

I totally understand this, as well. But its not like my town had a coffee shop before Garbucks.

Well, if you own a small business ( namely the so called ‘ma and pa’ general consumer) business and then Wal-Mart comes to town or Mr. Starbucks spreads ten stores in and around your location, that tends to suck the life outa that small business or keep it struggling.