Extra drive-through nets Starbucks a 26% sales increase in Phoenix

Residents in a fast-growing suburb west of Phoenix are now getting faster delivery of their Iced White Chocolate Mochas.

In Avondale, Ariz.—whose population swelled by 60% to 89,000 since 2000—the Starbucks on Indian School Road had trouble managing all its drive-through traffic with just one window. So it moved to an adjacent 3,070-sq.-ft. location vacated by KFC and put in a second window.

In its first months at the new store, Starbuck’s drive-through business increased by more than 25%.

“Starbucks could stack only three or four vehicles in the single drive-through lane at its former location – far below what was needed to manage the anticipated traffic at this site,” said Bryan Babits, senior VP of Western Retail Advisors, the brokerage that completed the lease for the store that had been empty for four years.

Revved-up drive-through concepts have become a key facet of the top coffee chain’s growth initiative. Target has plans to integrate Starbucks sales into the drive-up order deliveries at some  1,700 of its locations that contain in-store Starbucks cafés.

Rapidly growing Phoenix has become a premier hotspot for expanding brands. Retail space absorption in the metro hit 4.1 million sq. ft. in this year’s first quarter in a year-over-year comparison– the strongest absorption since the start of the Great Recession according to CoStar.

The market’s retail vacancy rate currently sits at just 5%.

“Phoenix’s retail demand is happening not only in traditional stores but also in the QSR category, making us one of the nation’s hottest locations for new and expanding concepts,” said Western senior VP Bryan Ledbetter.

Starbucks aims to have 45,000 stores in the United States by the end of 2025, some of which will be drive-through-only locations.