Fiscal 2007 will be a big year for Starbucks. It will finally give New Yorkers warm breakfast sandwiches. It will move closer to making China its biggest market outside the U.S. It will take down a chain of hippie baristas.

And, if reports by director of trading and operations Colman Cuff are to be believed, it will open 20% more stores than it has today; a whopping 2,400. While many of these will be in the U.S., a large number will be in China, where Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) currently has only 400 stores.

Everyone seems to believe one eternal axiom of investing: growth is good. Certainly, revenue and profit growth will be good for Starbucks and I (as an exceedingly small investor), for one, can't complain about the short-term growth of the stock -- up 65 cents, or 1.76%, today on the news. And growth surely seems built into the price, at an exceedingly rich 53x earnings.

But growth can be too fast. Too careless. Too extravagant. Too 20%. In my analysis of the company's cash flows, it's somewhere between $250k and $300k to open a new Starbucks. Maybe that's not outrageous? But it's not cheap. When I see these huge numbers all stacking up together, I want to be very worried.

Starbucks today said that it will eventually have 40,000 stores worldwide, not the 30,000 previously forecast.

Now, Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) has 12,000 stores today, so the statement is wild speculation on its face. Any number of factors could change between here and that 40,000 eternity: Suppose doctors find out that coffee causes cancer, or that people who drink coffee cause 90% of all car accidents.

Suppose China bars Starbucks because the company does not use Chinese coffee beans? Or, suppose that McDonalds goes into the business of having high-end coffee stores in their restaurants.

Of course, Wal-Mart may end up with 100,000 stores or Home Depot may end up with 50,000. Sears could add 30,000 stores in the next decade.

But, they aren't predicting it.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.