SBUX Store Portfolio Mix Chart

Here is the graph I mentioned earlier: an interesting "Tufte" way to visualize Starbucks' store portfolio mix over the years beyond simple pie charts. All information is publicly available here on the investor relations website.

Instead of looking at information from one year to the next, the story becomes much more meaningful when the entire depth of time is a central axis; and rather than derailing the conversation about the number of licensed and company-operated stores, we focus attention merely on how the ratio moves over time.

Hurricane Isaac and Tufte-style Supercharts

I was impressed by this "Tufte-esque" graph that shows projected path of Hurricane Isaac. Weather seems to provide the four-dimensional data values that makes chart plotters salivate. I'm always looking for ways to go "beyond the pie chart" in my day-to-day data interpretation and presentation. I found perhaps a new way to interpret the portfolio mix of our licensed and company-operated stores over time. Okay, not a "new" way, but different than how I have seen leadership discuss our sizable store portfolio over time. I'll post after I have a chance to edit and show only the historical, publicly available portion.



A Long Week

Excited to see the family. Rachel and the boys have been in Medford, OR for 8 days with Grandma Linda while I've been in Seattle trudging through the annual budgeting season at work. Having been through this a few times I knew to recommend the family take a few days to do something fun that didn't require my attendance. This week I've counted 70+ hours at the office. Doing what I love, mind you, but hard and exhausting nonetheless. that's what she said It's been lonely too. FaceTime is a nice invention but no substitute for giving two little squishy irascible boys a hug. Loving the idea of having them all back today.

My Brilliant Wife, CPA

The other night I was giving Rachel some highlights from my day. At one point I mentioned something like: "I found money that we can include in our company’s annual budget! It’s related to capitalized interest income. It’s very arcane and difficult to explain but I can try. Are you familiar with it?”

Rachel: “Well no, not really. I’ve never worked with it… But… I know that it’s the interest you would charge for your capital projects by multiplying the accrued spend by either the company’s LT debt rate or an appropriate third-party benchmark interest rate. And that as the interest income is accrued at the corporate entity, it is offset by a balance sheet entry at the BU level. And that once the project is placed into service it would depreciate along with the underlying asset over its useful life.”

Rob: [moment of silence, mouth slightly ajar] “Are you freaking kidding me!? You’ve never touched capitalized interest in all of your years of accountancy, and yet you still manage to give the best, clearest and most comprehensive explanation of anyone I’ve come across? You truly are a brilliant corporate CPA.”