foto credit: Seth W

Have you checked if you local Starbucks store is closing? Over the next year, many Starbucks customers are going to have to drive or walk a little further for that triple, venti, one half caf, wet, 2 %, three splendas, extra hot, extra carmel, double cup, carmel macchiato. It appears that the downturn in the economy is causing Starbucks to close 600 stores. I used to work in San Francisco, and they certainly don’t have a shortage of Starbucks symbol (SBUX). It seems in the financial district that you can find a Starbucks at every major street. In fact, when I worked at 555 California, we had a Starbucks in our building.

A couple of interesting facts that I found while reviewing the list of store closures at The Wall Street Journal:

1. San Francisco only has two stores that are closing. I realize the city has a lot of foot traffic and visitors, but only two stores? According to Starbucks website, they have over 80 stores within 5 miles of the financial district. 80 stores is amazing!

2. Montana has no store closings. How many Starbucks locations do you think are in Montana? How about 16.

3. Reviewing the map from The WSJ, it appears that Las Vegas has the most store closures for one city. I counted 13 Starbucks closing. I guess it would make sense, since Las Vegas has enjoyed such rapid housing growth.

Will you be driving further to get your Starbucks Latte? Will the 600 store closings allow some new competition into the marketplace? Will you frequent a local coffee house, rather than drive to another Starbucks? I’m sure many might even brew coffee and home and bring a thermos to work.

I have given up my Starbucks habit for almost two years now, as I would frequent every work day in San Francisco. Some days spending $5-9 on coffee and pastries. Those days are long gone! I still drink coffee, but now brew it at home. Costco sells Starbucks beans and you can brew a cup of Starbucks for a fraction of the cost of a store cup. One store closing I will miss, Tahoe City California. My wife and I would travel from the Bay Area once or twice a year and look forward to a warm Latte or Hot Coco. Now we’ll just have to do a little research to find a local mom and pop store in Lake Tahoe. Even better, we can just make some coco for our road trip and save a few more dollars.

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Today I drove by the Chevron gas station and noticed a man updating the prices. He had all the numbers off the board and I couldn’t take a picture. After my errand, I drove back, and couldn’t believe it. Last week I wrote a post about this same gas station Does the current price of gas make you conserve fuel? I wish I had my camera last week. The price of gas was $4.15 for regular unleaded and today the price jumped to $4.23. Almost 2% in a week and 7% in two weeks! This gas station doesn’t sell diesel, but I saw another station yesterday at $5.25. I realize the major trucking companies are hedging their expenses and buying options. But what about the average guy and his landscaping business or construction business? They can’t hedge these prices. They can only raise prices. This will be more than interesting to watch as the summer driving season starts and families pack up and hit the roads. Have you heard of any businesses raising prices due to increased gas?

I should head over to Costco tomorrow and compare prices. Cheapest gas in our city is Costco and most expensive seems to be Chevron. I’m interested to know gas prices in your city and if you have a camera handy, take a pic and send it to me. I would be happy to post it and compare prices. If you live outside the U.S., this could really be interesting to compare. We do have it better than the U.K., but pay way more than Dubai. Send me your pics.

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As I have mentioned before, I have two vehicles in our family. We drive a Toyota Prius and a BMW X5. My reasons for owning both are extremely long and detailed, and I will leave that for another post or even another blog. I really need to stay focused as I wrote earlier about my Squidoo lense from yesterday. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and the price of gas this week has risen 3-5% or 10-25 cents. I usually purchase my gas from Costco and I believe I read somewhere that the supplier is Chevron. Interesting that the Chevron station today had regular unleaded gas for $4.15 and Costco was selling it for $3.85. A 30 cent difference. Costco has always been one of the cheapest gas stations in town, but this is unbelievable. I normally do not get excited about the talk of gas prices as I try to focus on the bigger picture of jobs, housing, and credit issues. But $4.15 gas is really going to make a lot of news. I forgot to take my camera with me today, but will start carrying one in my glove box. I really need a picture of the Chevron station to help illustrate this post. By the time I get my camera, the price of gas could be $4.20. Are you changing your driving habits or driving patters to conserve fuel? I wrote another post on Hypermiling, where some people are taking to drastic measures to conserve fuel. What are you doing to conserve fuel? Are you carpooling, walking, biking or taking mass transit to save gas?

On the topic of post ideas, I had a great idea for a blog post but needed my camera. I saw a guy in a truck today coming down my street with a pickup full of real estate signs. White wooden signs that go in lawns. It made my stomach a little sick seeing so many signs. He must have had 10 or more, ready to go into someone’s heart (lawn). I have my eye on new Nikon camera at Costco. Would be great for my other job capturing celebrities as a paparazzi. Just kidding. It’s hard for me to rationalize the purchase for this blog. Would you buy a new camera for your blog posts?

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