24/7 Wall St. Starbucks Evaluation Tour – San Diego II

Peter Lynch encourages investors to look at what they use and what they know for investing, and Starbucks (SBUX-NASDAQ) has become one of the largest household names out there. 24/7 Wall St. is reviewing numerous locations between the rush hours of 7:30 AM and 8:30 AM local time in numerous cities throughout the country, putting the Peter Lynch methods to test and to see if the company’s growth plans will be as successful as the company hopes.

Location:  3675 Murphy Canyon Rd, San Diego

We’re back on the West Coast today, and this morning’s location is right smack-dab next to an Einstein Brothers bagel & coffee shop.  Fortunately for both stores, the area is a lay-up, as they are both located on a feed-in street where many big-box retailers are located (including a Fry’s Electronics and a Wal-Mart).  When I arrived at 8:05, both locations were basically “overflowing”.

There were six people ahead of me in line, so my wait time of 2 minutes, 55 seconds was not too bad.  The staff here must have had military training, because they were about as efficient as possible, creating a friendly buzz that had the pleasant side effect of making people move a bit faster in line.  The location itself is pretty small, seating only 12-14 people inside, with 3 tables outside for co-mingling with Einstein patrons.  Customers were evenly split between commuters hoping for a quick exit, and the daily lollygagger crowd on their way to/from shopping. 

Merchandise was sparse but well-stocked, mainly focused on beans and mugs; the idea must have been to preserve seating space in this cramped location.  The bathroom was adequate, but not perfect.  Ambiance was better than at our last San Diego spot, with some local media publications dotting the outside entrance and peaceful outside seating. 

Overall Ratings (1 to 3, 3 being best): Wait Time – 2, Cleanliness – 2, Bathrooms – 2, Space – 1, Personnel – 3, Inventory – 2, Ambience – 2

There is also a McDonald’s a stone’s throw from here, and once they get their full coffee push going, there might be some tightness in this area – right now, however, this location is a throughput machine. 

We’ve recently kicked the tires down in Texas, and on the East Coast, and look to increase our sample size in the coming weeks.

Ryan Barnes

April 23, 2007