The future transcends coffee

BY ALLISON LINN
Associated Press

SEATTLE — Think there's already a Starbucks on every corner? Think again.

Starbucks is opening coffee shops at the rate of about 3½ a day worldwide, and that figure could increase, chief executive Orin Smith told shareholders at the company's annual meeting Tuesday.

The long-term plan is to have about 25,000 stores worldwide — more than triple the nearly 8,000 stores the coffee retailer has right now. And even that amount seems a little "light," according to Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz.

To accommodate those plans, the company, which already employs more than 80,000 people, is hiring 250 people a day, the executives told a packed house of thousands of shareholders.

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