A month or so ago, Starbucks announced they planned to close around 100 stores in the US. Yesterday, they upped that number to 600. They haven’t released a list of the stores they plan to close, but they did say that 70% of them were opened in 2006 or later. That would be just about every Starbucks in our area.
It got me thinking about how many places there are where I live (in Port St. Lucie, FL)Â to get a decent cup of coffee. I got a map and generally used Tradition, St. Lucie West Blvd, US-1 and Becker Rd as the borders. Then, I counted …
- 8 Dunkin Donuts (1 inside a Chevron, 2 inside Shell stations, 1 inside a BP and 3 free standing)
- 6 Starbucks (1 inside the Treasure Coast Mall, 1 inside an Albertsons and 4 free standing)
- 6 McDonalds (all free standing) - Yes, McDonalds has good coffee
- 1 Port City Java (free standing)
- 1 Exodus Coffee (free standing) - Have never been there, but got good reviews
- 1Â Borders Cafe (inside Border’s Books & Music)
In total, 23 places in our little corner of the earth here to get coffee drinks. And, I’m sure I forgot some other cafes.
I don’t know, but to me, that seems like coffee over-kill. Interesting to note on the map that in most cases, Starbucks seems to have positioned themselves near a Dunkin Donuts in much the same way that Burger King tries to position itself near a McDonalds. Also, the Starbucks around here seem to stay open later than the Dunkin Donuts. I’m my past experiences, Dunkin Donuts is usually open 24×7 and Starbucks closes around 10 or 11.
Thus far, I have visited 22 of the 23 locations in the 2 years I’ve lived here. I have never been to Exodus Coffee, but I’m never on Bayshore Blvd anyway. In that respect, maybe 23 locations isn’t coffee over-kill.
