Tonight:
4°c
Fed up with the blandness or corporatism of Starbucks? More likely to go and buy your mocha and brownie from what appears to be a local coffee shop?
Yes, Starbucks thought so too, and that is why the US behemoth has decided to try and kid the punters into new outlets which are in fact Starbucks by any other name.
The Seattle Times reports that Starbucks is aiming to rebrand at least three stores in its home town.
The outlets will have locally oriented names such as 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea in a bid to have what Starbucks design director Tim Pfeiffer call “a community personality”.
The stores will also attempt to differentiate themselves and maybe get a little more hip by selling alcoholic drinks as well as coffee, and feature live music or poetry performances.
However, the move has already been dubbed “stealth Starbucks” in the States.
Analysts say that Starbucks is not trialling these outlets for the good of their customers.
Rather it has woken up, smelt the coffee and realised that slumps in sales over the last two trading quarters of 8% and 9% could be down to potential customers preferring to go to their local independents where the coffee may even be cheaper.
As such, Starbucks is also trialling selling some coffee for as little 60p a cup to enhance its appeal among dime-watching consumers.
