Starbucks is frowned upon in San Francisco where you can't walk a block without tripping over three independent coffee houses (maybe that's just the mission district)

There's one in the Castro and one on Fillmore, they should close those.
also SF hates Barnes and Nobles. There is 1 in the city proper.

Carabou Coffee is like Starbucks in Colorado (Mall of America has one on every floor) but they have a look and feel in the stores that Starbucks use to have before they became a thrift store chain selling coffee - Never understood why thet would open several stores next to each other...we got two in less then a two block stretch of each other (and they're not even franchises????)

I have always assumed they are catering to people like me who are scared to do anything as complicated as cross the street before I have had my first cup of Joe in the morning

I always figured it was to try and monopolize available space like the cereal aisle in grocery stores.

Amazingly enough, here in Seattle - the birthplace of Starbuck's- there is 1 independent/local coffee shop for every 2 Starfuck's. Then again, maybe we can support that if we drink as much coffee as they say we do. Give me a local joint any day of the week.

I had about 6(im serious!) friends who worked at a bennigans in my home town. So our whole group of friends would go there. Despite that the food was awful. Knowing how badly run they were im surprised this didnt happen sooner. Sorry to see you go shenanigans!

RIP the worst most heart cloggin sandwich in a chain restaurant

I don't understand this.

Here, Starbucks franchise has been secured by a family-owned corporation and seem to be doing well.

In fact, expansion has been rapidly increasing. Near my office alone, there are at least 7 to 8 Starbucks cafe--which in most of the day is a full house.

Every single mall being built are sure to have Starbucks.

All this in tropical country with an extremely warm weather and a reeling economy.

we only had one starbucks in adelaide so i guess that's going. i was never a fan of the drinks but they had these amazing cheese/pepper twist things.

Starbucks is still doing pretty well here in Vancouver. There are still huge lineups everyday in the downtown core. By the number of franchises it looks like they're even doing better than Tim Horton's (Canadians will know what I'm talking about).

Hopefully they aren't planning too many cutbacks in Tokyo, or my wife might be looking for a new job...

Are those sandwiches deep fried in batter?

I heard about this yesterday and actually yelled out loud "FUCK!" I love that thing, it's the only food I'll get there, but still it's worth it. I haven't had one in like a year, now the wait is eternal. I cried tears of butter.

As for Starbucks, when you're in the middle of no where and forgot to make your own coffee at home, it's the only choice. There are no locals and Dunkin Donuts sucks worse. That's just how some of us non-urban folks gotta roll in the boonies.

I mentioned why Starbucks "clusters" stores on page 1 of this thread, but here's an article from 2007 about an independent coffee shop owner who sued Starbucks because "...that coffee giant Starbucks "cluster-bombs" neighborhoods, barraging the areas with so many stores that competitors, like her, are driven off."

Say what you will about other chains, but Starbucks is the only major U.S. chain I can think of that has been this aggressive in opening outlets to smother competition to death.

In a somewhat interesting follow up: Bennigan's parent company also owns the Steak & Ale brand, so it was announced yesterday that all Central Florida Steak & Ale locations are getting shut down. Well, one of them just happened to catch on fire at about 3:00 am......hmmm, coincidence?

...the truth is out there!

Goddamn, I am going to miss the Bennigans Monte Cristo. Oh well, my heart will be better off without it.

You're in the heart of the South... surely there must be another place that makes better ones than Bennigans...

Hmmm...don't really know that I'd consider Louisville the 'heart' of the South, but you should still be able to get a decent terrible sandwich

LOL, I live near Atlanta, and I know a place that deep fries BBQ, and that's a SIDE dish!

The real reason Starbucks opens multiple locations near each other is crowd management. If the lines at one location start to become too long, they open another.

I love Fat Matt's BBQ in Atlanta...