An alert reader just forwarded me this (thanks Shaun). Today, a Starbucks coffee shop in Seattle, Washington, is test-marketing a new menu item: beer. According to an AP story the Starbucks on East Olive Way “reopened Monday [and] is the first under the Starbucks brand to offer alcohol.” The AP story continues with the following. “Craft beer and local wines go on sale after 4 p.m. The idea is to offer drinks and a wider variety of savory food that will attract customers after the morning espresso rush.”
USA Today has a fuller story about how and why the chain is testing beer, wine, cheese and other foods. Their pronouncement is that the “Starbucks of the future arrived today.” They speculate that if successful, this new model could become “the prototype for the next generation of stores for one of the world’s most influential brands.” Here’s how they describe the new look of the renovated Starbucks.
A very different kind of Starbucks is on tap. It will serve regional wine and beer. It offers an expansive plate of locally made cheeses — served on china. The barista bar is rebuilt to seat customers up close to the coffee.
Most conspicuously, the place looks less like a Starbucks and more like a cafe that’s been part of the neighborhood for years — yet that’s “green” in design and decor. This is the calling card of independent java joints that have been eating and sipping away at Starbucks’ evening business for decades. U.S. Starbucks stores get 70% of business before 2 p.m.
The corporate eyes of Starbucks — and the nation’s ultracompetitive, $15 billion chain coffee business — are laser-focused on this Starbucks store on Olive Way in Seattle’s bustling Capitol Hill area. The 10-year-old location was closed for three months to be revamped into a Starbucks that may not look or sound like any Starbucks you know. But if this location is a hit, some version of it may eventually come to a Starbucks near you.
….
Inside, the floor is stripped to highly polished concrete. Some of the chairs were salvaged from the University of Washington campus. Empty burlap sacks — once used to transport Starbucks coffee beans — hang from the walls. And an oversized table — designed for customers to share — is made from flooring salvaged from a local high school.
There’s also a video of the new Starbucks’ project to sell both beer and wine.
Um, stick to what you know. Actually, your coffee isn’t that great. I guess there’s new names for “pint” and “half pint”? I predict the success of McDonald’s pizza.
Seems like a pretty smart move. As long as they’re not serving beer and wine in plastic or paper cups.
And, Rico, they’re going to sell other people’s beer and wine — as opposed to making their own.
Never could figure out why they haven’t developed and sold their own cola drinks, though.
If only they brought back the Redhook Double Black Stout brewed with Starbucks. That was the first “dark beer” I drank when I was learning about craft beer.
Not sure if I’ll be visiting Starbucks for a beer but it makes sense from a corporate standpoint. McDonald’s saw huge sales increases when they introduced their new coffee, leading to a big loss by Starbucks.
Also, Starbucks has quite an education requirement for their employees regarding their products. They may actually know something about beer when this is all said and done.
If Starbucks ever tried brewing their own beer I’ll bet it would taste a lot like Heineken, not that its terrible, just not a very good beer. When Starbucks was just starting up, they bought their beans from Peet’s, then decided they could make more money by buying cheaper, Robusta beans from another supplier. I can see a similar change happening from whatever their initial selection of beer may be.
I hope they don’t attempt a hybrid. Someone’s already tried caffeinated coffee. Its counterproductive in my book.
Fossilhippie: I think you have the history of Starbucks a bit confused… the original owners of Starbucks learned coffee roasting from Peet and they didn’t even sell brewed coffee until a number of years later when they were bought out by Il Giornale, which was owned by Howard Schultz who previously worked for Starbucks. Il Giornale used Starbucks coffee. So while there is certainly influence from Peet in Starbucks, it would not be correct to say that they used Peet’s coffee in the beginning by any stretch of the imagination.
Also Starbucks does not buy from only one supplier as you suggest in your post, that would be insane. Starbucks has probably thousands of coffee suppliers all over the world! Not to mention the thing about Starbucks using robusta beans… thats not even true at all – in fact most espresso blends from anywhere _do_ include robusta beans and Starbucks gets flack sometimes because they _don’t_ put robusta in theirs…