Starbucks is testing a new type of coffee shop in its home base of Seattle: one in which its brand is nowhere to be seen.
You won't see this logo anywhere in the new store Starbucks is about to open in Seattle.
That’s right: According to a story by the Seattle Times, an old Starbucks location on 15th Avenue East in Seattle is being remodeled into a coffee shop called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.
(Maybe the caffeine I just drank is really getting to my head, but as I write this post, I keep thinking of that Sesame Street song that goes “one of these things is not like the others…”)
The idea is to make these stores more like independent neighborhood cafes than the ubiquitous Starbucks chain stores we’re used to seeing.
According to the story:
The new names are meant to give the stores “a community personality,” said Tim Pfeiffer, senior vice president of global design. Starbucks’ logo will be absent, with bags of the company’s coffee and other products rebranded with the 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea name.
In the spirit of a traditional coffeehouse, it will serve wine and beer, host live music and poetry readings and sell espresso from a manual machine rather than the automated type found in most Starbucks stores.
The changes come at a time when retailers, including Starbucks, are suffering from slower foot traffic and lower profits.
How did the specialty coffee mammoth learn how to make its new store have a more local feel? According to the story, they visited other local coffee shop competitors:
Sebastian Simsch, co-owner of Seattle Coffee Works near Pike Place Market, became frustrated last year after large groups of Starbucks employees kept crowding into his 300-square-foot store to look around.
“I thought it was funny,” he said. “We’re this little store, and I thought Starbucks didn’t need to learn from me.”
During the third group’s visit, Simsch let them know what he thought.
“I said, ‘If you want to buy something that’s great, but just to look, that’s not cool,’ ” he recounted. “I called the PR department and said, ‘Never again.’ “
The 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea is the first of a handful of these new stores that Starbucks is trying out. If it’s successful, the company will try rolling it out in other locations, the Seattle Times reported.
What do you think of this new Starbucks plan?
