9/17/2009 4:18:00 PM Community reluctant to welcome new Starbucks
By Korte Brueckmann
Starbucks is opening another of its beer and wine coffeehouses at the corner of Broadway and Roy this fall, to be called Roy Street Coffee and Tea. This is the second of the stores - known to some as "Secret Starbucks" - that downplay the connection to coffee giant Starbucks and imitate the look and atmosphere of independent coffee shops.
Destined for the 700 Broadway Building at the north end of the Broadway business district, the long-empty space formerly occupied by a condominium sales office has a liquor license application in the window in the name of Coffee House Holdings, and no mention of Starbucks.
Coffee House Holdings is the name of the company behind 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, Starbucks' first store in its marketing plan to imitate independent coffeehouses. The Starbucks logo is entirely absent at that store, and the bulk coffee is custom packed without mention of Starbucks. The store logo does have the tag line "inspired by Starbucks."
A drawing in the windows of the new shop space shows an extensive outdoor seating area on the west side of the building with a new entrance there as well.
Starbucks' corporate media office declined to answer all but one of eight specific questions about the proposed shop. The answer was a pre-written, corporate-approved mini-press release sharing no information that the public does not already have.
"We're pleased to share that 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea is off to a successful start," the release said. "As stated previously, we plan to extend this concept to other locations in Seattle. Our next location will be at 700 Broadway East in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It will be named Roy Street Coffee & Tea. We look forward to sharing additional details closer to the opening this fall."
Customers and staff at the nearby Joe Bar, an independent coffee shop in the historic Loveless Building, were not so reticent.
"I just find the whole thing insidious and underhanded," said Magan Crossman, one of the Joe Bar cooks. "In a recession affecting every small business, when every business trying to stay alive, a ruthless corporation is coming in to take away their business."
"You should write that the world doesn't need a Starbucks on that corner," said Joe Bar barista Bronwen Sera.
Derik Andreoli, a daily regular Joe Bar customer, was not irate, but neither was he pleased.
"I don't know exactly how I feel yet," Andreoli said. "I find it not at all surprising that the corporation would abandon the business name to get another part of the market.
It almost feels as though they
feel a need to trick their customers."
Despite the absence of the Starbucks name on the proposed location, everyone seemed aware that Starbucks was moving into the immediate neighborhood.
Up on 15th Avenue, the well-established Victrola Coffee and Art on 15th is a head-to-head competitor with the new 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, but the competition is less than intense.
"It's been open five weeks and we have not seen a drop in our business at all," said Tonya Wagner, Victrola manager. "It doesn't seem that many people are there." She does not, she added, get down to the other shop often, so they may be doing just fine. Starbucks' press release says they are doing fine.
Dean Waller, a corporate benefits consultant, said it is irritating that in so much of our lives we are surrounded by companies that assume a veneer to disguise the reality of the companies. He said that is what Starbucks is doing with this new marketing plan, which downplays the connection of the new stores with the corporate parent.
"It is small and shallow," Waller said. "If you have to go in with stealth to sell a totally corporate product, it shows the decision they have made to look like a handcrafted coffee shop. It is just an attempt to monopolize the industry. If it hurts small shops, it degrades the quality of life here."
