600 Starbucks.....

Morgan is off and on her way to Ireland. As I write this, she is just boarding the plane from JFK to Dublin. Her total travel time is 17 "real" hours, but 4 of that is layover time in New York (both leaving and returning) , so 13 hours of flying. On the way there, in terms of "time", it is 25 hours because of the time difference (8 hours from here in SD), and 9 hours when she returns next Sunday.

I am really feeling bad about not going with her. As I have said, I am not much of a traveler, and when she made these plans, I made plenty of excuses in my head for not joining her. I was still uncomfortable out here, it was really "for her" as a "prize" for her weight loss, and when you factor in Cassie, I just dug me heels in and never even thought about going with her. She was supposed to have different travel partners, but each time they backed out, and each time, I kept saying, "I can't go". Today, I regret that, and am a bit sad about it. I have made a promise to myself not to let this happen again, especially when this great of distance in involved.

I really miss her already, but I know she will have a wonderful time.

I was reading about some clothing store closing, Steve & Barry's (which I never heard of) being sold, and 100 of its 276 stores being closed. That is 36% of it's existing stores closing. A quote in the article from an analyst states "“During their extreme growth mode, which was too ambitious, they took on some leases at the wrong price and wrong location,” Teitelbaum told." Really, do you think so? When you can close 100 of your stores, it was not ambitious growth, but lack of planning.

Steve & Barry's is not the only one closes locations. Many businesses are doing it right now (you can read about one almost everyday, it seems), but the biggest announcement in the past few months was Starbucks closing 600 stores.

What I don't get is the lack of "future vision" in these businesses forecasts. Was every CEO born within the last 10 years? Have not any of them realized that as long as there was an economy (Starting with Adam "buying" that apple. Bad deal.) it goes up and down, or in cycles?

We have all heard the joke the last few years about a Starbucks on every corner. Well in some places of the US, there literally is one on every corner. This article in USA Today from 2006 has a chart that shows how many stores are in each state (More now, as this was two years ago.), and how many residents per store (Now a bit lower, as the population has not grown that much in proportion to stores. Well, legally. But that is another post). The chart shows that after Washington, DC with less than 10,000 residents per store, the state of Washington is next at almost 12K per store, and while California is a little further down the list in terms of residents per store, there were 2004 stores in the state as of the writing of the article. 2004 coffee shops!

Now they are cutting 600 of those stores. For arguments sake, let's assume that it cost an average of $50,000 to upfit each store. That is $30 million to get them ready to make coffee. Just to get even from that, those 600 stores would need to sell 6 million cups of coffee at $5 a cup to just pay for the upfitting, and that is before purchasing any ingredients. What were they thinking?

I am not picking on these two, well maybe a little on Starbucks, as there are many other business "downsizing" their number of locations. Also, I am not against growth, but what I do believe in is smart and controlled growth (and that goes for housing, as well as businesses). There are many lessons to be learned from this "economic downturn" as it is being called, and those are lessons for businesses, as well as the population in general. My hope is that these lessons are learned as we make our way out of this, and when the economy gets "hot" again in the next upturn of the cycle.

Here is a free hint for business owners, and large company CEOs. If your product is good, we, as consumers, will make an effort to get it. If that means travelling to the next town for the store, or using the internet (and every retail by now should have a robust internet presence), we will do it. We don't need a store of yours on every corner. But, if it is the same as the other guy, we then will use convenience. So, if you want us, make or supply the better product. We will find you.

I was going to apologize for ranting, but I'm not. have a feeling there are more to come. ;-)

- This is the "movie of the week" Cassie wants to see.
- More Disney music being heard in our house.
- Cooking video games. I know one girl who wants them.

Until the next time.....