Source: Starbucks, 2020
As of September 2020, the US and China are the top-ranking countries with the largest number of company-operated Starbucks stores worldwide (Starbucks, 2020), which is not surprising at all considering the size of these countries.
Despite steady growth in the number of stores year on year, Starbucks has announced that it will close 400 company-owned locations by the end of 2021. This is due to changing consumer demand spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, which favors convenience-led formats such as drive-thru, curbside pickup, and mobile-only pickup points (USA Today, 2020).
Source: Starbucks, 2020
Starbucks opened its first store in China in 1999 and only has a quarter of the number of Starbucks stores that of the US, but the growth rate over the past 10 years has been extremely high, reaching almost 700% (Statista, 2021). The coffee chain recently laid out plans to compete with KFC to become the fastest-growing Western food chain in China. The goal is to open a new store every fifteen hours until the year 2022.
Although it may not reach the same number of stores as in the US, it is set to reach a similar store count if it continues its rapid expansion plans.
Source: Starbucks, 2020
As of 2020, the Seattle-based coffee house accounted for 8,941 company-operated and 6,387 licensed stores in the US (Starbucks, 2020). The amount of Starbucks stores has been on a steady increase over the past nine years.
Although California is the state with the most number of Starbucks, New York City is the city with the most number of Starbucks in the US (ApartmentGuide, 2019), with a total of 241 establishments.
Chicago has the largest Starbucks ever (Forbes, 2019). It’s located inside Crate & Barrel’s former flagship location on Michigan Avenue. The 35,000 square feet Reserve Roastery has five floors and houses three coffee bars, a cocktail bar, and an artisan bakery and cafe.
The Chicago location is the coffee chain’s sixth roastery. Other locations include Tokyo, New York, and Milan. Each roastery is much larger than a typical cafe and is designed to pay homage to the culture and history of the city.
Aside from being the largest location, the Chicago Roastery hosts its tallest cask. Freshly roasted coffee beans rest in the 56-foot-tall bronze container before being used in drinks.
In 2018, a Nielsen Scarborough survey found that over 37.8 million Americans visited a Starbucks (Statista, 2021) within the last 30 days.
Starbucks revenue over the last ten years has tripled. With its global expansion and multi-billion dollar deal with Nestle in 2018, pre-pandemic calculations expected Starbucks’ revenue to skyrocket in the next few years. However, Starbucks lost $3.2 billion due to the pandemic (CNBC, 2020), posting only $23.518 billion in 2020 (Starbucks, 2020). With the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, Starbucks is expecting the demand for coffee to grow by over 20% by 2022 (CNBC, 2019).
Source: Starbucks, 2020
Starbucks has made specialty coffee mainstream, expanding from a few stores to a whole empire with more than 32,660 stores worldwide (GOBankingRates, 2020).
What Starbucks Is Worth | |
SBUX Share Price, 52-Week Range | $50.02-$107.75 |
SBUX Market Cap | $119.34B |
2020 Revenue | $23.518B |
2020 Profit | $15.823B |
Macrotrends’ Evaluation of
Starbucks Net Worth |
$119.34B |
All information on 52-week range accurate as of February 24, 2020. |
Nestle and Starbucks made a $7.15 billion deal that will allow Nestle to sell and distribute Starbucks coffee globally outside Starbucks stores (Forbes). Nestle is buying a business of about $2 billion from Starbucks. The objective is to use Nestle’s stronger distribution system to expand Starbucks’ distribution.
In February 2019, Nestle launched its first range of global coffee products under the Starbucks brand (Forbes). The new lineup comprises 24 products, which includes whole bean, roast and ground coffee, as well as the first Starbucks capsules developed using Nespresso and Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee system technologies.
Starbucks is by far the largest coffeehouse chain in the world in terms of revenue, generating more than 10 times the revenue of its closest competitor, Costa Coffee (Restaurant Business, 2020). Although 74% of the company’s sales came from beverages, food items contributed a sizeable 19% to the overall revenue.
Starbucks
21,380Dunkin’ Donuts
9,229Tim Hortons
Dutch Bros. Coffee
Peet’s Coffee & Tea
Caribou Coffee
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Biggby Coffee
Source: Restaurant Business
Designed byThe company was started by three Seattle men – Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin, and Zev Siegl. The first Starbucks opened in 1971, and called it Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spices (Rewind & Capture). Starbuck was the name of the first-mate of the whale-ship Pequod, the ship in Moby Dick (Rewind & Capture).
It was Bowker who came up with the name Starbucks. While looking at an old mining map of the Cascades and Mount Rainer area, Bowker saw a town called Starbo. It reminded him of the first mate in Moby Dick.
He liked the way the name sounded, even though it had nothing to do with coffee at all. The other founders approved of the name and simply added an “s” to make it sound better.
Like any other restaurants and coffee shops, Starbucks introduces unique drinks every now and then to stay relevant and keep up with competitors. However, there are Starbucks drinks that stood the test of time to become some of the most popular drinks of all time.
Below are the most popular Starbucks beverages in major cities across the country (Ranker).
City | Top Starbucks beverage |
Boston, MA | Iced coffee |
Charlotte, NC | Skinny latte |
Chicago, IL | Blonde Roast |
Denver, CO | Tea Latte |
Los Angeles, CA | Frappuccino |
Memphis, TN | White Chocolate Mocha |
Minneapolis, MN | Latte |
New York, NY | Pike Place Roast |
Omaha, NE | Mocha |
Philadelphia, PA | Blonde Roast |
Phoenix, AZ | Iced Caramel Macchiato |
Portland, OR | Eggnog Latte |
San Antonio, TX | Frappuccino |
San Diego, CA | Green Tea Frappuccino |
San Francisco, CA | Soy Latte |
Seattle, WA | Extra Shot of Espresso |
Tampa, FL | Iced Coffee |
Starbucks Reserve features exclusive roasts and blends, drinks, and has more experienced baristas that are highly-trained and know more about coffee compar. Starbucks Reserve was launched in December 2018 in the Chelsea section of Manhattan (CNBC), although the flagship store opened in its home market of Seattle in 2014. The company revealed its plan to open as many as 20 to 30 Roastery stores around the world.
In December 2018, Starbucks launched a virtual store that ties together all of its digital services into one place in China (The Drum). The service uses Alibaba technology to create an online experience for customers from several apps (The Drum). It brings together the Starbucks app and mobile apps within the Alibaba sphere, which includes Taobao, Tmall, and Alipay.
This move, according to Alibaba, is the latest in a long-standing partnership on omnichannel retail between the two businesses. In August 2018, the two brands announced a collaboration around a delivery service in China via Ele.me. Alibaba is also behind various technologies in place in China’s flagship Starbucks Roastery interactive store in Shanghai.
How people consume coffee evolved over time and continue to do so. People are getting picky with the type of coffee beans used in their coffee or even the kind of milk mix with it. And being the pioneer of specialty coffee, Starbucks is continuously reinventing itself to keep up with the demands of the modern world and stay competitive even with the market changes brought about by the pandemic.
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