Starbucks expanding in London, bigtime

Coffee giant Starbucks is putting down more roots in London, opening one new store every two weeks for the next ten years. Not bad going for a company that already has 256 London outlets, but anybody who walks around the West End of London has to ask the question why the hell do we need another coffee shop, because you’ll find one of some brand or other literally on every block.

Starbucks are being chased in the opening stakes by the likes of Cafe Nero and Costa Coffee, all three perfectly good shops but they’re all expanding like crazy and there are plenty of smaller outfits following them.

You have to wonder what will happen if Morgan Spurlock does a ‘ I drank nothing but coffee for 30 days and turned into Charles Manson’ movie. I used to live in a town just north of London called Hertford, a prosperous, middle class town of around 30,000 people. They had a McDonald’s in a prime location in the middle of town, the only big chain fast food restaurant there. It closed last year which is unusual for McDonald’s outlets, people stopped using it. Starbucks should be careful they don’t overkill their golden goose.