Whatever your morning coffee order is — from black coffee to unicorn frappuccino — it probably doesn’t take you long to get it. Starbucks is basically everywhere.
For instance, there’s a neighborhood in Houston that has three Starbucks on one corner alone. It’s starting to feel like they’re practically on top of one another.
Well, according to Wall Street analyst Andrew Strelzik, the “typical” Starbucks location has 3.6 other Starbucks locations within a one-mile radius, CNBC reports. And this actually may be starting to cause a problem for the coffee chain.
“Cannibalization likely has increased,” Strelzik wrote. “Strong new store performance appears to be coming – at least in part – at the expense of existing store traffic.”
The analysis suggests that the convenience of being able to get your caffeine fix anywhere and everywhere actually has a breaking point.
Starbucks has been opening locations by the thousand over the past decade. As of 2016, Starbucks had almost 8,000 United States locations, with an estimated 350+ in New York City alone.
So maybe it’s time for Starbucks to stop its rapid growth and focus more time and energy on the stores that are performing well. Quality over quantity, guys.
Starbucks, however, says there’s plenty of room for new locations to open.
“Clearly we believe that there’s still a long runway for growth for new stores in the U.S. and globally and will remain disciplined in our approach as we progress toward 37,000 global stores by 2021,” said Linda Mills, vice president of corporate communications for Starbucks, in a statement.
We have faith that Starbucks will pull through these tough times (let’s not forget it’s still worth billions of dollars) and we’ll be able to get our tall non-fat lattes at some more spaced-out locations.
And hey, at least they haven’t had to stoop to changing their name, like another popular coffee brand that will remain unnamed.
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