From Vancouver

6 May 2008 at 11:20 am Randy Westgren 6 comments

| Randy Westgren |

I have been hunkered down in Vancouver for several days, teaching the final module of an executive education course. One of the amusing elements of the course is that it migrates from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver, British Columbia during the year, with intermediate stops in Calgary and Niagara Falls. Execs and instructors get to spend time in some innovative, entrepreneurial firms outside their own regions (and escape the classroom).

From the Listel Hotel on Robson Street, one can reach 29 Starbucks stores within a 2 km by 2.5 km area of downtown. There are seven Starbucks on Robson Street alone, between the 400 and 1700 blocks — a 20 minute walk. Among these are the stores at 1099 Robson and 1100 Robson; they face each other kitty-corner across Thurlow Street. One of the execs stated that this constitutes a unique phenomenon within the Starbucks chain — two stores so closely juxtaposed.

1. Has anyone seen or heard of a similar situation in another city?

2. Has someone written about this (apparent) strategy of location-packing Starbucks stores?

BTW, if you are a Starbucks-hater, there twice as many direct competitors in the same 5 square km area, including 13 Blenz Coffee outlets, which is a local competitor with international ambitions (www.blenz.com). The best thing they do isn’t coffee; they will make you Japanese ceremonial green tea while you wait — bamboo whisk and all.

Entry filed under: Ephemera, Former Guest Bloggers.

More Free Stuff: Herbert Simon and Edward Banfield 2008 Kauffman Data Symposium

6 Comments Add your own

1. Alison Kemper | 6 May 2008 at 1:48 pm

In Toronto, there are two Second Cups on the corner of Spadina and Bloor.

(Second Cup is the domestic equivalent of Starbucks.)

It makes coffee dates confusing as hell, and it’s expensive real estate. One is a few feet closer to the UofT, and one is inside the doors of the Jewish Community Centre.

A block east of there, there are two independent espresso bars on the corner of St George and Bloor owned by the same family (also confusing). Within the block south of Bloor on St George are two Starbucks and two Second Cups. There is also another Starbucks that completes the southwest corner of the block at Spadina and Harbord.

I think that Starbucks and their high end competitors know that academics like to drink a lot of coffee and are pretty location specific (the library, the gym, the biz school, the JCC, etc.).

Is it not the same elsewhere? Or is this a Canadian phenomenon?
2. Dan Hirschman | 6 May 2008 at 2:19 pm

Comedian Lewis Black has chronicled this phenomenon, and named it “The End of the Universe”. Available in Youtube form here.

I can’t remember which routine this is from, but it’s at least a few years old.
3. Peter Klein | 6 May 2008 at 3:06 pm

So we’re not quite here, but almost.
4. Donald A. Coffin | 6 May 2008 at 3:33 pm

I believe, but could be wrong (I’m doing this by memory), that there are two Starbucks stores on DuPont Circle in Washington, DC. They are by separate entrances to/exits from the Metro system, which makes it convenient, I suppose, for caffeine addicts todealw ith their addiction. (Having just looked, there are Starbucks at 1003, 1301, 1501, and 1701 Connecticut Ave, NW, in DC.)
5. Paul | 7 May 2008 at 10:32 am

This isn’t necessarily a strange phenom – especially in Vancouver. I like to call it the parasite effect. They saturate an area so much that not only do they eat into the smaller guys revenues but their own, essentially cannibalizing themselves and decreasing store by store sales. I am not certain if there are many examples of the stores being kitty cornered, but I know for a fact they make a habit of being on every other block as well as on the same block, just around the corner.
6. spostrel | 12 May 2008 at 8:33 pm

There used to be two 7-11s on opposite corners near my high school.