In my travels over the past, I’ve three times come across locations where there was…seriously now…a Starbucks across the street / mall / whatever from a Starbucks. I always get a laugh because I think of Lewis Black when I see it. But it does make it kind of hard to sympathize with the company. By the looks of it, there isn’t a single block in midtown Manhattan without a Starbucks somewhere.

I’d guess — based on the constantly changing faces at my local stores — that Starbucks has enough employee turnover (attrition) that they don’t have to lay off too many employees.

Its sad but it’s capitalism. There is just an oversupply of places to buy a cup of joe and a scone that is the bottom line. Here in the PNW we have coffee places on every corner Starbucks included. In my town of 50K people there are at least 7 Starbuck’s if you count the small one’s within supermarkets! and probably 25 other independents and chains. We drink a lot of coffee here but c’mon! Now if folks like you and me would be willing to pay a monthly fee to use the facilities, internet etc, maybe that many places would work, but of course that business model would not fly.