Java junkies must often journey more than two blocks to find a Starbucks, which the company sees as a problem, its chief executive said on Thursday.
As a fix, Starbucks plans to more than triple the number of its worldwide outlets to 30,000, with half of those in the US.
"Despite what you hear now that we must be nearing saturation in North America, that is not true," Chief Executive Orin Smith told analysts, saying convenience mattered both to frequent and infrequent Starbucks customers.
"Americans don't walk, so if you have to go more than two blocks, they don't go," he said.
Starbucks will focus its growth in US suburbs and small towns, with many of the new coffee shops being drive-throughs. It currently has about 8,500 stores, including 6,100 in the US.
One reason for Starbucks' rapid expansion is demographic. Smith said the company is seeing younger, less affluent, less educated and more ethnically diverse customers.
Smith announced his retirement earlier this week. He'll be replaced early next year by another Starbucks executive, Jim Donald.
The coffee giant also said on Thursday it was launching the first of its "music bars" where customers can listen to digital recordings and burn their own CDs.
The "Hear Music" coffeehouses will be open in 15 Starbucks stores in Seattle beginning on Monday and 30 stores in Austin, Texas starting Oct. 25. The company opened its first music bar as a test in Santa Monica, California.
In a partnership with Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks will allow customers to create personalized CD compilations and burn full-length albums from a library of 150,000 songs.
Starbucks said customers will use self-service screens placed throughout the store and use a stylus pen to select music. They can create a custom CD for US$8.99 for the first seven songs and US$0.99 for each additional song.
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