Monday, November 20, 2006

Not Another Starbucks

An exciting thing happened in our 'hood a couple of months ago; I can't believe I was so remiss and didn't report it as soon as it happened:  we got a Starbucks.  Yep, a Starbucks opened up in Pleasure Ridge Park.  I know - it's hard for us to believe, too.  But it's true.  The Starbucks in the Dixie Manor Shopping Center is part of Starbucks' master plan of having 40,000 stores worldwide.  I did some research and found that Starbucks adds six stores a day on average.  And the majority of their new stores are within a few minutes of existing stores.  The saturation is part of the company's plan - they say that one main complaint they hear from customers is that Starbucks isn't convenient enough.  They say their customers don't want to go too far out of their way to get a latte or Frappucino.  Their researchers also say that would-be customers don't end up buying a Starbucks drink because the line is too long.  So their solution is to open another store nearby. 

That's all well and good,  but I really don't think another Starbucks in PRP would go over.  I'm still shocked that they opened up even one store in our part of town.  It's not that we don't deserve a nice coffee shop like Starbucks - it's just that it's not a big priority in our neighborhood.  Two coffee shops in our neighborhood were open only a few months before closing - and one of them was in the exact spot where our Starbucks is.  We just really don't want a coffee shop; what we really want an Olive Garden.  The rumor of an Olive Garden has been going around for years.  Everytime we see ground being cleared or a building going up, we all get excited at the thought that it might be an Olive Garden.  But no luck.  We're also getting a new Wal-Mart about 3 minutes from The Compound, but we're really not even thrilled about that.  We still want an Olive Garden.  Or how about two of them?  We don't want to have to go too far out of our way for Chicken Marsala. 

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