Bye Bye Starbucks

[Antares]

Interesting. In Park Ridge, IL, there are two Starbucks less than half a block from one another. Since the 2nd one opened, I always thought it very odd that any store would have two separate locations that close. Yet, neither of them are on the closing list. So, they both must be getting enough traffic. Then again, I'm also talking about a street where a Subway and a Quizno's are literally next door to each other...with an Einstein Bros. Bagels a few doors down. They all seem to be doing very well, too.....

 

[waffle911]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned the scene in Shrek 2 where one Starbucks is about to be crushed by something and all the people flee to the one across the street.

I was also confused by the term "rotary", most places I've been call them "traffic circles" or "roundabouts" (particularly England). But you're definitely right, Americans don't know what to think when coming to a roundabout; though highly efficient traffic control devices, there aren't enough of them in the U.S. to make the general public familiar enough with them to prevent the occasional "stray" from swimming upstream.

We typically only go to Starbucks for either beans or frappeccinos, though the occasional cappuccino or late can't be helped. We have since found better coffee bean however, in Maine no less.

 

[maestro55]

The one store they are shutting down in my area is the newest and I have actually never been inside (I think it is has probably been there for a year or so now). I still have at my other four locations to go to.

 

[rdowns]

I just remembered visiting Denver's 16th Street Mall, an area that is about a mile long. There are 10-12 Starbucks along the walk and only 1 is on the list. Amazing.

 

[mojohanna]

I think the funniest location I have ever seen a Starbucks was in the heart of the Forbidden City in Beijing. (For those who don't know, this is right across the street from Tienemen (sp?) Square). It was strange seeing this in the heart of Communism as well as the former seat of the Chinese equivalent of the royal family. Put it this way. Picture a Starbucks in the middle of Buckingham Palace.

The Chinese govt recently forced this location to close after they received complaints about it.

Still funny though.

 

[mojohanna]

I just remembered visiting Denver's 16th Street Mall, an area that is about a mile long. There are 10-12 Starbucks along the walk and only 1 is on the list. Amazing.

Amazing. I was just there last weekend and commented to my wife how you couldn't even finish a cup of coffee before you hit the next store. We counted 3 within one block of each other.
You would think that they would have higher profits if they reduced the number of stores in areas like this.

 

[robanga]

Coffee is obviously a very high profit margin product, and when you have high margins and a very efficient operations/cost structure you can over-saturate a given area and maximize your distribution. I am guessing that a large amount of coffee purchases are an impulse purchase ( aside from those of us that just need a caffeine fix ) and an over saturated retail channel helps that.

They obviously went too far though and that cost structure got out of whack. At a publicly held company that spells pain from the investors and so you have to take action immediately to make corrections.

I would loved to have been a fly on the wall in the one corporate meeting where the marketing VP put up the PowerPoint that said it was a great idea to open xyz number of stores next year.

 

[bigrell486]

Starbucks was bound to implode on itself. They open 2 or 3 stores on the same block.

It doesn't take a genius to see that they were getting greedy.

 

[sushi]

Starbucks was bound to implode on itself. They open 2 or 3 stores on the same block.

Yep, they were opening (expanding) their stores too quickly. Things will settle down and we'll see some stability.