We’re still doing store reviews testing Peter Lynch’s investment philosophy of looking into products you know and use as potential investments. This round we are hitting various location of Starbucks (SBUX-NASDAQ) as many use this. We are also seeing if there are areas that the stores can improve as they embark on an aggressive multi-year growth plan, so we are testing the company out for the 7:30 to 8:30 AM eye-opener times when most workers are on their way into work or trying to wake up.
Location: 5535 Memorial Drive (Houston, TX 77007); 7:48 AM, April 20, 2007
This Starbucks is located in a relatively new strip center, but it is located in a swarm of Memorial Drive traffic situated on the inbound traffic side of the street where thousands of Houstonians drive into downtown as an alternate route that is not the freeway. It is located on the corner, and it’s a perfect location as far as inbound AM traffic and proximity to Houston’s largest exercise park.
I was a bit surprised, walking in at 7:48 AM local time and there were only 2 people in line ahead of me. This created a fast “time to order” of only 48 seconds, but before I had left the floodgates of coffee monsters must have opened because in the 10 minutes I was inside the line became about 10 or 11 people deep (so my wait time wasn’t representative). Everything was well stocked and orderly, but it was surprising that the newspapers were more than 10 feet past the cash register and much of the store merchandise (including CD’s) was also past and too far away from the entry and the line areas to get noticed. The ambiance here was nice inside and out considering that it was located on a heavily trafficked thoroughfare, and there was actually room for them to add more tables if they wanted to. This one has plenty of competition with a frozen juice store and a kolache house right there as well. The store and my namesake were both clean but nothing out of the ordinary and the staff was acceptable.
Ratings 1-3 (3 being the best): Wait -2; Cleanliness – 2; Toilet – 2; Space – 3; Personnel – 2; Inventory – 2; Ambiance – 2
Jon C. Ogg
April 20, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
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