Starbucks steaming ahead with aggressive expansion plans

By Jake Batsell
Seattle Times business reporter

The omnipresence of Starbucks has been punch-line fodder for years, perhaps most famously lampooned by a "Simpsons" cartoon featuring a mall filled entirely by Starbucks stores.
But if it seems like Starbucks is everywhere now, just wait.

"I believe that we will double the size of this company at least within the next five years, perhaps within the next three," Chief Executive Orin Smith told a crowd of Costa Rican coffee-farm owners and political officials in late January.

Starbucks, of course, already is one of the world's most ubiquitous retailers, with more than 7,600 retail stores in 34 countries. But as the company readies for Tuesday's annual shareholders meeting at McCaw Hall, it is pushing ahead with even more ambitious expansion plans.

More...