Tuesday, July 29, 2008

:(


61 of 84 Starbucks stores in Australia will close, including all stores in the Australian Capital Territory :( These are the only non-US stores that Starbucks is planning to close. I like to occasionally get a largish cheapish filter coffee at the Starbucks branch pictured, rather than the more expensive espresso coffees available everywhere else here, and lounge around in their nice comfy chairs. More empty retail space to add to the increasing amount of empty commercial property I'm seeing.

2 comments:

Zombie Money said...

I heard about this. Is starbucks not that popular over there?

http://zombiemoney.blogspot.com/

mOOm said...

The problem is that McDonald's have 6 times as many "McCafes" as Starbucks had stores in Australia. And other Australian chains like "Gloria Jeans" also have a similar large number of outlets. At least the couple of Starbucks in the Canberra CBD are in likely very high rent locations. OTOH they had pretty good traffic. Australia only has half the retail space per capita as the US so rents are likely higher in comparable locations. That's my guess.