Can Starbucks Reach 20,000 Stores

Starbucks needs to slow the building of new stores for a while and watch the stores they already have and see if building stores next to each other is profitable. Mr. Schultz sounds like he is more worried about his bragging rights more then what is best for the company. Schultz wants Starbucks to be one of the most recognized and respected brands in the world. If he’s not careful Starbucks will be but for all the wrong reasons. Mr. Schultz acts like he’s playing a game of monopoly but not on a board in real life; buying property and putting stores everywhere hoping people will land on his space and pay him.

The management team at Starbucks needs to revise their plan, control, and organization, maybe even change the team altogether sounds like the Starbucks teams are all “yes men” and agree to anything. The goal to have 20,000 stores is possible if you have a very strategic plan. Starbucks has a pretty good competitive advantage of the other coffee companies in that Starbucks have a shit load of coffee shops everywhere, but the company seems like it needs improvement on their core competencies.

With less than 10% of the coffee consumption in North America Starbucks it taking a huge risk in building all the stores especially when the company had a second price increase in less than a year. The public is more likely to cut back the consumption of a luxury item rather than a necessity. It’s only coffee and people can buy coffee at grocery stores and make their own if the price gets to out of control. Consumer buying habits change all the time.

The graph that came with the articles shows the cause of adding new stores. When business was good Starbucks wanted to take advantage of it so they started building more stores, As a result the growth in transactions per store diminished the next year. The year after it came back up, but not as much as when they first started building stores. Then the year after it dropped way down. The people at Starbucks should be able to see a pattern in four years on the map. And revaluate there plan the more stores they open the more stores they are going to have to close in the future.