https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6251867/
SEATTLE – There are so few Starbucks Corp. stores in the world that customers are sometimes forced to journey more than two blocks to find one, the coffee retailer’s chief executive bemoaned Thursday.
lans to more than triple the number of its worldwide outlets to 30,000, with half of those in the United States. That’s up from a previous goal of 25,000 stores worldwide, including 10,000 U.S. locations.
A big focus of that growth will be in America’s suburbs and small towns, chief executive Orin Smith said, where people don’t want to leave their cars to get their caffeine. Many of the new outlets will be drive-throughs.
Starbucks currently has about 8,500 stores, including about 6,100 in this country. The company has not set a target date for the 30,000 stores.