Highest coffee quotients

There are those who believe that a town without Starbucks is just small step above barbarism. Others, with some justification, view the spread of the Seattle-based company as the caffeine equivalent of Disneyfication.

Our coffee quotient was designed to serve both camps. It's a measure of the number of Starbucks stores per 10,000 population in cities across the U.S., as of March 2005. (We limited our analysis to cities with at least 10,000 people, using the 2000 census figures. Supermarkets and other stores selling coffee beans were not included in our totals. Store locations were based on the addresses cited on the Starbucks Web site.)

While Starbucks is the leader in the coffee wars, it certainly isn't the only contender. National and regional chains such as Caribou Coffee, Seattle's Best Coffee (now owned by Starbucks) and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf have also expanded to many markets. And then there are the independents and small local chains. (One of our personal favorites is Gimme! of Ithaca, NY.) But no other retailer has made the imprint of Starbucks.

The cities with the highest store-to-population ratios nationally are listed below. Top cities by population group, and by state, appear at right.

Coffee quotient trivia: None of the three communities called Starbuck in our database has a Starbucks. (That would be Starbuck, MN; Starbuck, ND; and Starbuck, WA.) Other eponymous communities still lacking in venti Frappuccinos include Hot Coffee, MS; Coffee City, TX; Coffee Springs, AL; Coffeeville, AL; and Coffeeville, MS.)

More information: If you have questions, or if you'd like to suggest your favorite brew, send us an email at Coffee@epodunk.com, or call us, at 607-387-4181.

COMMUNITY	POPULATION	STARBUCKS PER 10,000 PEOPLE
Falls Church, VA	10,377	7.7
Katy, TX	11,775	6.8
Greenwood Village, CO	11,035	6.3
Issaquah, WA	11,212	5.4
Palm Beach, FL	10,468	4.8
Littleton, CO	40,340	4.5
Destin, FL	11,119	3.6
Lincoln, CA	11,205	3.6
Sherwood, OR	11,791	3.4
Naples, FL	20,976	3.3
Williamsburg, VA	11,998	3.3
Lynnwood, WA	33,847	3.2
Spring, TX	36,385	3.0
Bel Air, MD	10,080	3.0
Alpharetta, GA	34,854	2.9
Fairfax, VA	21,498	2.8
Vienna, VA	14,453	2.8
Freehold, NJ	10,976	2.7
Duluth, GA	22,122	2.7
Grand Haven, MI	11,168	2.7
Brentwood, CA	23,302	2.6
Lake Oswego, OR	35,278	2.6
Silverdale, WA	15,816	2.5
Auburn, CA	12,462	2.4
Tumwater, WA	12,698	2.4

March, 2005
Sources: ePodunk; Starbucks.com; U.S. Census Bureau

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