Schultz Caresses, Ponders Coffee Bag, Company’s Future
While the consensus is that Starbucks will take a while right its listing ship here in the U.S., business is booming in some surprising international locations. Take Mexico:
Reuters reported last month that, since entering Mexico in 2002, the company’s expansion rate has increased sevenfold. In fact, Starbucks plans to open 80 new stores in Mexico this year.
For Mexico’s trendy and monied set, Starbucks has become a status symbol of indulging in American tastes.
The company is also planning aggressive expansion in China (with possibly “thousands” of stores), Great Britain, Japan and Canada.
Meanwhile, Starbucks is mining customers’ minds for improvements with its My Starbucks Idea site — linked from the corporate homepage. Easily my favorite so far — and it’s baffled me for years why no company uses this — is the order/pay swipe card.
