Lance Sasser shares his thoughts on Starbucks' latest strategy with GlobeSt.
Originally published in GlobeSt.
Vice President
Starbucks announced a grand growth plan this week, saying it will focus on elevating the Starbucks brand, strengthening the company’s digital capabilities, unlocking efficiency, and reinvigorating partner culture.
It also plans to open 17,000 new stores by 2030.
This will give single-tenant net lease investors in the brand more options than ever in more locations than ever.
“It’s become clear that Starbucks, as well as many other national and regional QSR brands, are switching their growth focus to smaller markets where their presence has historically been limited to interior locations within grocery stores such as at Kroger, Safeway, and Albertsons,” Lance Sasser, Northmarq vice president of Investment Sales, told GlobeSt.com.
Sasser said that many of these tertiary markets, especially in the Northwest, witnessed significant population growth during and after Covid, and show little signs of slowing.
“Recently, we’ve seen new double drive-thru prototypes, expanded outdoor patio seating, as well as smaller footprints that should allow the company to speed up the delivery of new stores,” he said.
“Longer term, I would expect Starbucks credit will continue to attract new investors, particularly once the 1031 market begins to thaw.”
Sara Trilling, executive vice president and president of Starbucks North America, emphasized the retailers’ plans to innovate its store formats. “[P]urpose defined stores like pick-up, drive-thru only, double-sided drive-thru, and delivery-only allows us to better meet our customers where they are at through differentiated experiences,” she said in a prepared statement.
“To capture that demand we will build more new stores – with new formats, in new cities and cities we’re already in. To be clear, Starbucks has not saturated the U.S. market.”
The story was written by Richard Berger and appeared on GlobeSt.com on Nov. 8, 2023. © 2023 ALM Global Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
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