Black Gold

I take comfort just knowing that there are 110 Starbucks within two miles of MediaChannel's 38th and Eighth Avenue office. That's 8.75 Starbucks per square mile, or the highest caffeine density anywhere in the world. Here's how I did the math:

Starbucks' store locator identifies 110 outlets within two miles of our address. A circle with a two-mile radius has an area of 12.566 square miles (pi times radius squared). 12.566 square miles goes into 110 Starbucks 8.75 times, or 8.75 Starbucks per square mile.

Put in terms the business world can appreciate that equals annual coffee sales of $6,615,000 per square mile of midtown Manhattan. And that's not counting the many Dunkin Donuts and "mom-and-pops" that line the block.

"What Starbucks has created around coffee is an extension of the front porch. If you look at the UK, the English pub is an extension of people's homes but for a different beverage. Our stores have become a gathering and meeting place in addition to the coffee," Howard Schultz, Starbucks' five-cup-a-day chairman tells brandchannel.com.

Starbucks have also transformed into ad hoc new-media hubs offering power outlets, wireless access and a caffeine charge for citizen journalists on the beat. Love it or hate it, the coffee giant has done much to propagate the notion of wireless ubiquity, setting up a network of urban hotspots with nodes on almost every street corner.

Until very recently, Starbucks built this empire without national print, radio or TV advertising campaigns. Instead the company drove customers to its $4 cappuccinos, frappuccinos, espressos and lattes using community-based marketing, charitable event sponsorships and location, location, location. And in 2005, it plans to add 1,500 new stores worldwide, crossing the ten-thousand-Starbucks threshold by Fall.