Starbucks Sees Even More Stores in Its Future

Starbucks plans to open a whopping 22,000 locations to bring its massive store count to 55,000 by 2030.

At its bi-annual Investor Day, Rosalind Brewer, COO and group president-Americas, projected Starbucks’ U.S. base would expand by “nearly 800 gross stores each year.” She told investors, “Though we are growing off a large base, there is ample room to expand in regions where the Starbucks brand is less penetrated with particular focus on high-volume, high-margin suburban drive-thrus.”

Starbucks plans to accelerate its new format expansion, like pickup and curbside, projecting that it will expand drive-thru to nearly 45 percent of its U.S. portfolio by 2023, up almost 10 percent from fiscal 2020. Pre-COVID, roughly 80 percent of sales were to-go.