The Geography of Starbucks

Thanks to Dante Chinni for an interesting article on the geography of Starbucks.

Here we go:

Stereotypes. Some people believe that the "Wal-mart Nation" favors John McCain; the "Starbucks Nation" favors Barack Obama. Probably not true.

What I found immensely fascinating was the division of the United States into 11 Starbucks Communities. I am not going to summarize them here; you can visit the article to discover the 11 Communities, but I will list them (mostly so I don't forget)

1. Minority Central
2. Service Worker Centers
3. Campus & Careers
4. Military Bastions
5. Tractor Country
6. Immigration Nation
7. Monied Burbs
8. Evangelical Epicenters
9. Boom Towns
10. Emptying Nests
11. Industrial Metropolis

These communities do not correlate with any common perceptual region, i.e. the Bible Belt, the Sun Belt, the Midwest, or the South, for example. These communities exist wherever people who fit the demographic profile of the community live. For example, an easy one is Military Bastions, or military bases, like Ft. Campbell, KY, or Ft. Benning, GA. Immigration Nation may refer to those areas that are attractive to migrant laborers, or perhaps some urban centers that recent migrants tend to gravitate towards, such as Dallas, Phoenix, New York, Atlanta, etc.

The article deals with an area of geography called Market Segmentation. Some might say that market segmentation falls within the jurisdiction of marketing and business. However, we cannot forget that whenever place enters into the discussion, and the resulting characteristics or traits can be mapped, then we are now well within the domain of geography.

I like this Patchwork Nation idea created or implemented by the Christian Science Monitor to track trends in our culture.