There are now 4 Starbucks in my little town of 28,000 people and ...

[cantdrv55]

a 5th one on the way. The four existing are within 2 miles of each other.

The town leaders and some residents are up in arms about these "big box business" and have set limits on how many they'll allow in the future. They'd rather have vacant retail/office spaces, of which there are numerous, than have big business open up on our main street.

The town I live in bills itself as a "Main Street USA" kind of town so we've had a moratorium on new residences, apartment complexes, master planned communities for decades now. Problem is, our downtown is dead when compared to similar sized communities. Great thing is we have no traffic unlike Walnut Creek, Lafayette, etc.

I have no problem with Starbucks. I would've preferred a Peet's Coffee and Noah's Bagels though.

[wludavid]

The town where I went to college had about 7,000 non-student residents, and maybe 300 students. No chains were allowed to set up inside the a certain zone -- maybe 7 blocks by 5 blocks. That restriction didn't seem to hamper business much. There was one private coffee shop, many restaurants, gift shops, touristy things, a couple of small clothing stores.

I think Main Street USA has its place, and we should try to maintain that in the very center of the city. But it doesn't hold further out, especially if there's not a built in clientele of students walking around every day.

Putting moratorium on new residences strikes me as stupid. If you want business, you need people. Keeping the city authentic is as simple as setting up zoning laws on how the new buildings must look.

[kang]

New Starbucks Opens In Rest Room Of Existing Starbucks

[cantdrv55]

That's funny.

[126coupe]

Just read Trump's new book.
Did you all know that there are more starbucks in China then the US.

[Dantilla]

Only five, for 28,000 people?

In Seattle, that would cause a riot! Every intersection in Seattle must have a minimum of two Starbucks locations. City code. The other two corners are reserved for independant espresso stands. Some intersections have a Starbucks on three corners. they have been grandfathered in.

And every one of them has people lined up waiting.

[Dantilla]

I'd explain it further, but I gotta go find some coffee.

[Soterik]

I read an article in WSJ last week, and there is a corner in San Francisco that does have one on 3 corners of an intersection, and they looked at doing the 4th corner, but it wasn't feasible, but not due to foot traffic.

Believe it's Mission and 4th.

e

[tabs]

Just think of all the gasoline I save by not having to wait my turn in the drivthrough lane. I get my daily excercise by walking to get my coffee..all the way to the kitchen and back...whew I'm exhausted think I need a pick me up joe.