A great story on AlterNet discusses the growth rate of Starbucks (would you believe that the chain is just getting started?)
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. (full story)
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