Starbucks penetration: Part II

More numbers on Starbucks--here, running the numbers on the top 50 largest cities in the U.S., according to the census estimates of 2005. Not surprisingly, the largest cities have more Starbucks per capita than entire states. Again surprisingly, Las Vegas comes through on top, above Seattle, since all the casinos seem to have multiple Starbucks.

New York City actually has the most Starbucks of any city, but the population is so big, it's actually a relatively very small per capita number. Also worth noting that there are many cities near Seattle (my hometown of 50,000, for example) that have as many Starbucks as cities like Oakland or Detroit. A possible area of future analysis is an income breakdown, and possibly an ethnic breakdown.

Here are some partial numbers (these are city limits only, not metro areas, and include only residential, not daytime population):
1. Las Vegas, NV - 1 store per 3,922 residents
2. Seattle, WA - 1 per 4,449
3. Portland, OR - 1 per 6,131
4. Sacramento, CA - 1 per 7,736
5. Denver, CO - 1 per 8,086
6. Washington, DC - 1 per 8,687
7. Atlanta, GA - 1 per 8,716
8. San Francisco, CA - 1 per 9,360
9. Miami, FL - 1 per 10,734 (note that this includes a bunch of airport locations)
10. Honolulu, HI - 1 per 10,782
...
47. New York City, NY - 1 per 48,471
48. Philadelphia, PA - 1 per 58,531
49. Detroit, MI - 1 per 73,889
(I didn't run numbers for New Orleans since its population has diminished significantly and is still uncertain).

Largest numbers of raw Starbucks:
1. New York City, NY - 168
2. Chicago, IL - 151
3. Las Vegas, NV - 139
4. Seattle, WA - 129
5. Houston, TX - 115
6. San Diego, CA - 112
7. Portland, OR - 87
8. Los Angeles, CA - 84
9. San Francisco, CA - 79
10. Dallas, TX - 76

Starbucks penetration: Part I

Highest concentration of Starbucks per person by state ("Starbucks" including all locations, company run and business alliances):

1. District of Columbia 1 per 8,217 residents
2. Washington 1 per 10,748
3. Nevada 1 per 11,077
4. Colorado 1 per 13,216
5. Oregon 1 per 13,792
6. California 1 per 16,705
7. Hawaii 1 per 17,960
8. Arizona 1 per 21,756
9. Alaska 1 per 22,122
10. Virginia 1 per 27,720
...
National average 1 per 32,444
14. Texas 1 per 34,170
...
48. Arkansas 1 per 106,891
49. West Virginia 1 per 113,554
50. Mississippi 1 per 139,099
51. Vermont 1 per 155,763

Lobbyists and congressmen have to meet somewhere, I guess. As for Vermont... my theory is a little bit of rusticness, a little bit of ruralness. (Is that a word?)

Quantifying coffee

The New York Times has an interesting article about Starbucks in which is discussed the company's foray into creating culture (not just the perfect brew).

Meanwhile, from here in Houston I've been debating how to label Starbucks. It's certainly true (as most would agree) that the experience here is not the equal of that in the Seattle area. So far I've come up with a few areas: ambience (environment, cleanliness), service (speed, friendliness), drink quality, etc. There are a number of subcategories to each. As a former barista I have the advantage of knowing what was looked for by "Snapshots" (the outsiders the company hires to rate service).

Soon I hope to start categorizing the service I get and, hopefully, become influential on the Houston Starbucks scene.