Starbucks’ 40,000 Store Goal

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Sep 9, 10:30AM EDT

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Starbucks’ 40,000 Store Goal — © martinrlee / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Starbucks started with one store. Today, it has nearly 38,000. Based on its expansion rate, that should reach 40,000 within a year or two.

Starbucks may be the most famous fast food chain in the world, with the possible exception of McDonald’s. Not only did it have 37,222 stores at the end of its most recently reported financial quarter, Same-store sales rose 10% compared to the same period a year ago. Starbucks is on a run. (This is the most popular fast food chain in every state.)
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In that quarter, revenue was $9.2 billion, a record for the period. That was a jump of 12%.

Where will Starbucks grow? The company already has a major presence in China and the U.S., its top two markets. There are currently 16,144 Starbucks locations in the U.S. and 6,480 in China. Combined, these two countries generate 61% of Starbucks’ total sales.

While the demand for Starbucks is rising fast enough for it to grow in its home market, the real target is China. China’s comparable store sales rose 46% in the most recent quarter. If there was ever a sign that a market could absorb more stores, it is one with same-store figures that are so high.
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China has been a remarkably fertile market for many other U.S. companies, which cannot be lost on Starbucks’ management. McDonald’s has thousands of locations there. It is also Walmart’s second-largest market based on revenue. (These are the Starbucks capitals of America.)

Starbucks will reach 40,000 locations. Expansion in China alone can get it there.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.