Why Did Starbucks Cross the Road?†

To Get to the Customers on the Other Side, Says a New Book, But Maintaining Growth at the Coffee Chain Is the Challenge

Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2007 — Can Starbucks Corp. keep up its growth? That's a question many investors were asking even before a recently leaked memo from Chairman Howard Schultz raised concerns about whether the company was diluting its brand. After all, the stores seem to dot every block in New York City, and the company still plans to open 10,000 new stores world-wide over the next four years, bringing the total number to more than 23,000.