While this is not exactly about a coffee shop business at all, having high densities is one tactic that Starbucks used while building their vast empire. They were able to capture more traffic and customers, even if the second shop would cannibalize the other’s sales.

The reason that I bring this up is because of a site that ebay owns. It essentially does the same thing as Craigslist, of which they own a 25% stake in. The only differences are that kijiji is pretty, and Craigslist has users. I suppose that Craigslist also has the advantage of being pronounceable.

eBay New Ventures Launches Kijiji Classifieds Sites …Mobile.de, a car classifieds site in Germany; and Rent.com, classifieds site in the apartment and rental housing industry in the U.S.

eBay also acquired Marktplaats.nl, reportedly the most popular classifieds Web site in the Netherlands, in November 2004. Marktplaats owns classifieds sites in Germany, Canada, Spain and Turkey.

One Starbucks location can’t penetrate the market 100%, and if ebay is correct, neither can one Craigslist.