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Starbucks sales and profit climb, company adds 590 new stores

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If you have a daily Starbucks fix, you’re not alone. The company took in $3.6 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter. 

Starbucks added 590 stores around the world— including Ho Chi Minh City—in the first three months of this year. And they weren’t just coffee shops; more than 300 were tea shops that Starbucks acquired through its purchase of Teavana. Analyst Will Slabaugh of Stephens Inc. says Starbucks has succeeded by creating something people can afford to indulge in even in a rocky economy.

"Starbucks has done a fantastic job over the past few years, and I think it’s continuing to do a great job of really broadening their customer base and making it an accessible luxury to multiple demographics and across different income levels as well," Slabaugh said.

Even Starbucks has its challenges. Sales in Europe were flat from a year ago.

But Slabaugh says the numbers were a bit better than he expected, and it’s not something Starbucks is doing wrong. High unemployment in many European countries is causing people to spend less.

In July 2017, Ashley Gross became KNKX's youth and education reporter after years of covering the business and labor beat. She joined the station in May 2012 and previously worked five years at WBEZ in Chicago, where she reported on business and the economy. Her work telling the human side of the mortgage crisis garnered awards from the Illinois Associated Press and the Chicago Headline Club. She's also reported for the Alaska Public Radio Network in Anchorage and for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.