Coffee City
Melissa Allison tracks Seattle's — and the world's — caffeine addiction.
Comments (39)
E-mail article
Print view
Share
Starbucks unveils eco-friendly, neighborhood-tailored store designs
Posted by Melissa Allison
Starbucks is opening far fewer stores these days than it used to, but it wants the ones it does open to be environmentally friendly, to be made with local materials, and to have new looks that reflect the neighborhoods they're in.
The first example opened in March across the street from Pike Place Market in Seattle, which has a more rustic look than most Starbucks' stores including a coffee bar that includes scrap leather from shoe and automobile factories, a long "community table" from a local restaurant, and cabinets made from fallen trees in Seattle.
This month, it unveiled a second concept at its Paris Disney Village store, where some materials came from reclaimed Champagne racks and recycled mobile phone parts.
On Tuesday, it will reopen a store at University Village in Seattle with cabinets and wall fixtures made from Douglas fir reclaimed from school bleachers and redwood siding outside the store that was reclaimed from hop vine poles in eastern Washington.
"Ultimately, we hope customers will feel an enhanced sense of community, a deeper connection to our coffee heritage and a greater level of commitment to environmental consciousness," Starbucks' president of global development, Arthur Rubinfeld, said in a release. He's credited with creating Starbucks' look in the early 1990s and returned to Starbucks last year shortly after Howard Schultz resumed the CEO role.
Starbucks will seek LEED certification -- an indication of environmental friendliness -- for all new company-owned stores beginning next year. (Company-owned stores do not include most shops in airports, grocery stores, etc.)
After opening roughly seven stores a day in its heyday, Starbucks is now closing more company-operated stores than it opens. This fiscal year, it expects to open 95 new company-owned stores in the U.S. and 145 in other countries. At the same time, it plans to close 605 company-owned stores worldwide.
Anyone who read my earlier post (about the coffee wars bringing more business for everybody) knows that I conjectured that Starbucks' 4 percent stock hike this morning might have something to do with the new store designs.
Probably not, according to Sharon Zackfia, an analyst at William Blair & Co.: "The new store designs are interesting and can help localize the flavor of Starbucks, but is it going to single-handedly reverse comp trends? No. I'm more focused on the improvement we're starting to see in consumer confidence and the work they're doing in lean labor. This [store design] is good around edges, but there are so many moving parts that from a stock perspective, it's interesting but likely not going to be material in my opinion."
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
Nov 20, 09 - 1:34 PM
Starbucks seeks managers of social media, digital strategy
Nov 19, 09 - 1:12 PM
El Diablo Coffee on Queen Anne enters turkey latte art smackdown
Nov 19, 09 - 12:05 PM
Is Starbucks having another customer-friendly computer problem? Gold Card members find a loophole
Nov 18, 09 - 5:48 PM
Howard Schultz's base salary raised to $1.3 million for Starbucks' fiscal 2010
Nov 18, 09 - 5:00 PM
Street Bean Espresso, new nonprofit coffee shop in Belltown, hosts reception Wednesday evening


- Monfort fired after excellent worker turned unreliable
- Sentence request for US woman in Italy murder case
- 31 years for man who killed girlfriend, then lit cigarette and waited for police
- Boeing facility death was suicide
- Swedish threatens to end Regence BlueShield's contract
- Man falls 8 stories, suffers minor injuries
- Mariners Blog | A Mariners-Tigers swap makes a whole lot of sense for both teams
- Man shot in chest on E. Union Street in Capitol Hill
- Italian lead prosecutor argues Knox motive was hatred
- Mariners Blog | Dustin Ackley to move to second base; Mariners add six to 40-man roster
- Swedish threatens to end Regence BlueShield's contract
170 - Senate Democrats want to tax nips and tucks
131 - Italian prosecutors wrap up in Knox murder trial
109 - Boeing breaks ground for historic SC plant
85 - A Mariners-Tigers swap makes a whole lot of sense for both teams
84 - Man sentenced to 31 years in prison in girlfriend's slaying on I-5
78 - Mariners add six to 40-man roster
68 - First key vote today on Senate health bill
63 - Man shot in Capitol Hill
51 - Lynnwood is reinventing itself — again
50
- Swedish threatens to end Regence BlueShield's contract
- Washington state wines make annual best-of list
- Recipes: Sesame Pork Roast, Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce and more
- It's possible to recover a life lost to hoarding
- Restaurant review | Artisanal at The Bravern shows French flair in delicious style
- Seattle industrial artist Rusty Oliver is the man behind 'Smash Putt'
- Peruvian police: Gang killed people for their fat
- Nonprofits get creative using Twitter and Facebook to make donation easier
- $335 million in education grants
- Monfort fired after excellent worker turned unreliable






