March 2005 Archives

I'm a real believer in the power of numbers lately. My day job has me buried in numbers. I found an article today about the concentration of coffee shops per capita. Since coffee bears the responsibility for getting me where I am today, I read it with interest.

They rank the top cities by number of coffee shops per 10,000 residents. Portland comes in very high, at number five. All the cities you would expect to find are on the list, including Seattle, San Francisco, Olympia, and Bellingham. The number one city was a bit of a surprise: Anchorage, Alaska, with 2.8 coffee shops per 10,000 people.

It got me to thinking about my hometown of Soldotna, Alaska. There aren't anywhere near 10,000 people there, and I can think of half a dozen coffee shops off the top of my head. So, Soldotna, Alaska: clearly cutting edge.

Other interesting trends: growth is solid -- there are 7% more coffee shops every year. The average size of purchase is up, as well, to $4.08 last year from $3.81 in 2001. That's like, two Voodoo Doughnuts plus a latte! No wonder our fat asses are killing us.