Venti, Vidi, Vici: Starbucks To Open Algonquin Shop

Southeast McHenry County seems to have joined China and Europe as a target for store expansions by coffee shop chain Starbucks.  With one already on Randall Road in Lake in the Hills, the company's ready to open a second on Randall in Algonquin at the end of the month and a third store's unofficially in the works for Huntley, probably next year.

After a slump due to what some analysts thought was over-expansion and other believed was just the bad economy the Seattle company shuttered 500 stores but now it plans to open about 1,500 new shops although most in Foreign Countries.

Algonquin's new store in Woods Creek Commons is scheduled to open Sept. 28, according to a company spokesman who confirmed LITH's store "will continue to act as a gathering place for the community as well."  She declined to address Starbuck's thinking in placing the new Algonquin shop only a mile and a quarter south of the current one. (They'll be on different sides of Randall, anyway.)

Neither would she say anything about a new Starbucks in Huntley at Regency Square on Route 47.  Huntley planners report the company hasn't actually asked for a permit yet but say it sure looks as if it's going to.