the Sugar Conspiracy

Monday, June 30, 2003

Starbucks to begin sinister Phase Two of operation

The title is a fake story from The Onion, but the reality is just as scary.
From one coffee-bean store in 1971 (the outlet still in Pike Place Market), Starbucks now has 6,458, mostly in the U.S. and in all but one state (South Dakota) – so far. That number will click relentlessly upward, as steady as an atomic clock, advancing at least once every eight hours, three times every day, 23 times in a week, 100 times a month. By the end of this year, during which Starbucks expects a record $4 billion in coffee, tea, and merchandise sales, the company will have opened at least 1,200 new stores, similar to the number opened last year and the year before. That will reconfirm the Seattle corporation's place as No. 1 specialty coffee chain, accounting for close to half of the globe's 15,000 specialty coffee stores and doing its part to make the world an even more jittery place to live.

"The success we have enjoyed as we have entered new international markets is a validation of the worldwide acceptance of the Starbucks brand," declares company public affairs director Audrey Lincoff, "and demonstrates that we are in the early days of our growth and development". Chairman Howard Schultz, who was out of the country last week and unavailable for comment, told Fortune magazine earlier this month, "Those who talk about saturation obviously don't understand our business strategy."(emphasis added)

Creepy.

And I'd like to enter this story into the public record as evidence, your honor.

posted by chris at 6:53 PM
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