Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) wowed the markets last week with its latest quarterly update. The company made strides under the leadership of CEO Brian Niccol, who’s been at the helm for a bit more than a year, and it has a roadmap toward a complete recovery.
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There were many updates about performance and strategy in the report and at the investors’ day. Management provided an outlook through 2028, as well as a long-term view. One seemingly minor piece of information was that it sees the opportunity to open another 5,000 stores in the U.S. alone over the long term, and “as average unit volumes grow, that number could double over time.” That implies that it still thinks it can open as many as 10,000 U.S. locations, in addition to the 18,360 stores it already operates in North America.
Rather than continue opening new stores at a rapid pace, Starbucks has been much more deliberate about store openings in the pressured environment. Since the new store count expected in 2026 offsets store closures from last year, management is guiding for revenue to grow at the same rate as comparable sales this year.
It opened only 128 net new stores in the 2026 fiscal first quarter (ended Dec. 28), ending the quarter with 41,118 stores globally. That includes 8,011 in China, where it thinks it can open another 15,000 to 20,000 stores. In fact, it plans to double its international store count to about 40,000 stores.
Investors who think Starbucks’ opportunity is saturated should think twice. There’s no guarantee that the company will reach those ambitions, but there’s still a long growth runway for the coffee shop giant.
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