Sherry Chandler

A Starbucks by any other name . . .

Via Poetry Hut Blog, Starbucks Tests New Store Names, Alcohol Sales:

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) is scrubbing its name from a Seattle location in favor of the store’s street address in a test that could sprout more stores that seem more like the corner coffee shop rather than the global coffee giant.

The store, a former Starbucks that had been targeted for closing, is called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. It will also serve wine and beer and host live music and poetry readings as it seeks to take on a more community vibe where neighbors can gather late into the night. Bagged coffee in the store will also be slapped with the 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea name.

The chain plans to start by remodeling at least three Seattle-area stores with names based on their addresses or neighborhood rather than the corporation. Aside from 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, the two other locations have yet to be determined. If successful, Starbucks plans to expand the trial to other markets.

Make of this what you will.

I am particularly fond of this statement:

Operating a store under a different name could provide a fresh canvas for Starbucks to test a number of elements where consumers won’t be biased by the company’s name, says Ron Paul, president of Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based food consultancy. “It would only confuse the customer to put Starbucks on it,” Paul said.

Don’t let ‘em know you’re desperate?

Pretend to be a local store and not a chain?

The article says people are choosing not to spend their scarce dollars at Starbucks.

And, by the way, the Starbucks drive-through in Paris, Kentucky has closed. It’s a Long John Silver’s now.

Paris Super Wal-Mart Update

Caption on an above-the-fold photograph in the July 26 edition of the local paper, The Bourbon County Citizen:

Paris City employees begin cleaning up brush that will be the home of the Paris Dog Park in the future.

I leave you to apply your own punch line to that statement.

The Citizen assures us that our wonderful new Wal-Mart Supercenter will be operational by January 2007. Construction certainly seems to be moving rapidly, which is more than I can say for commuter traffic. That is being stopped by a flagger so that big earth movers can take dirt from one side of the by-pass and dump it on the other. All the traffic islands are torn up so the road can be reworked to accommodate the shopping center entrance. Who knew traffic islands went down two or three feet.

I go to work through town now.

We were promised a bigger better box, with a colonial façade to blend in with the rest of our pseudo-colonial architecture in that area (Bo Co High School being the prime example), but all I see at this point is a big box covered with brick veneer. I’ll admit that I’m a hostile witness.

Companion stores leasing in so far include a discount gas station, a Dairy Queen, and a Starbucks.

Yessirree Bob. Pretty soon Paris, Kentucky will have a Super Wal-Mart, a Starbuck’s, and some nice controlled green space with clean brush for walking our dogs. We’ll look like every other town in America and we’ll be happy. Don’t pay any attention to the empty storefronts downtown. And the jobs! Now our children can aspire to a career as a barrista without leaving home.

For further rants about the biggest box of all, I refer you to Have Coffee Will Write here and here.