A Starbucks-saturated planet

The Japan Times Online

Are we tired of Starbucks yet? Apparently not in Japan, where, after a dip into the red last year, the company reported a higher-than-expected surge in profits this past summer, fueled by cost-cutting strategies and a boom in sales of Strawberry Cream Frappuccinos. While a few unprofitable stores have been closed, overall Starbucks has boosted its presence here to 531 outlets nationwide.

And Japan is not alone, or even the most ardent, in its enthusiasm. The Seattle-based company now has nearly 6,000 stores in the United States and close to 2,400 overseas and in Canada, with new outlets setting up brew machines every day.

It is as if there were a planet-wide consensus to update Samuel Johnson's famous dictum about 18th-century London, thus: "When a man is tired of Starbucks, he is tired of life." (Casual observation suggests, however, that in the case of the ubiquitous coffee chain, "young woman" might be more accurate than the Johnsonian "man.")

It was therefore hardly a surprise to read in the current issue of Newsweek that Starbucks plans to expand even farther and faster than it has been doing. According to the company's chairman, Howard Schulz, "I think there are very few places we are not going to be able to go."

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