In todays paper....
When a Starbucks moves in, it's a good thing
Shawna Richer
Telegraph-Journal
Published Saturday September 15th, 2007
Appeared on page F1
Word that American coffee colossus Starbucks was finally coming to Saint John was not news on the level of Jesus returning, but to coffee connoisseurs of a certain persuasion it might have felt like something rather close.
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Starbucks will open a stand-alone retail store, complete with drive-thru - the first in New Brunswick - at the East Point shopping complex on the city's East Side before the Christmas holidays, a fantastic gift to the city. Rich hot chocolate, pumpkin lattes and Guatemala Antiqua, hot beverages made for a Saint John winter, might never taste so perfect.
A Starbucks kiosk was scheduled to open in McAllister Place on Friday.
While the company has operated outlets in Chapters bookstores in Dieppe and Fredericton for some time now, this is bigger and better - a full-on Starbucks coffee bar and retail store, 2,000-square-feet with all the cozy amenities the chain has become famous for - double-sided fireplaces and comfy, overstuffed chairs for lounging and reading and sipping. The drive-thru, standard now on most detached Starbucks stores, puts it over the top as a daily destination.
Even more exciting is news that company officials have already said they plan to move forward with possibly two more locations in Saint John; an embarrassment of riches after a Starbucks drought.
The company with the ubiquitous green, topless, twin-tailed mermaid logo was founded in Seattle in 1971 as a local coffee bean roaster in the famous Pike Place Market and named in part after Starbuck, Captain Ahab's first mate in Moby Dick.
The chain exploded in the United States and made inroads into Canada in the late '80s and early '90s - spreading their bold, exotic coffees and steaming espresso drinks in warm and cheerful coffee bars, airports, shopping malls, bookstores and even Target stores across America. Sacks of Starbucks coffee appear alongside Folgers and Maxwell House on grocery shelves. The words tall, grande and vente have become common language. Starbucks' recent partnerships with rock stars as big as Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney and its recent partnership with Apple's iTunes store further cements the company's place in our culture as one of the most successful lifestyle brands of this generation, its influence extending far beyond its original product category - a simple cup of coffee.
In 2006 the company posted $7.78 billion (U.S.) in revenues and as of today numbers 150,000 employees and 13,168 stores and outlets in 40 countries across the planet.
The company opened its first Canadian store in 1987 in Vancouver, and in 1995 formed an alliance with the bookstore chain Chapters, where until now the only New Brunswick outlets existed. There are more than 500 Starbucks - full-scale to kiosk counters - across the country, and it may be only a slight overstatement to say that getting a massive Starbucks puts Saint John on the map in a strange way.
When Starbucks moves in, it's a good thing. Here's why.
Starbucks' expansion strategy only seems like an uncontrolled and widespread explosion of green logos and cardboard cups. The company does not open stores unless it believes it can thrive. In other words, Starbucks goes where things are hot, or at the very least, heating up. Toronto real estate agents use Starbucks openings in that city to gauge the next trendy neighbourhood.
Starbucks arriving in Saint John may be some of the most interesting evidence yet that the city is on the verge of a boom.
The other day I fell into conversation with someone who protested the arrival of Starbucks, citing the old offensive corporate monster argument. With all due respect to our own java juggernaut, Tim Hortons isn't?
Like everything that achieves massive mainstream success based on quality and taps into our culture and value system and taste, Starbucks is one of the great modern social dividers. In Canada, when it comes to coffee, you are Starbucks or Tim Hortons. In America, you are a Starbucks person or a Dunkin' Donuts person.
I have never been a Tim Hortons person, even though the company was founded in Hamilton in the '60s, just a few years before I was born in the same city.
When I first moved to Halifax from Toronto in 2002, I was disappointed to discover no Starbucks downtown, though I soon located a small one in Chapters in a big-box complex on the edge of town. It didn't take the Starbucks card, and it didn't have a fireplace, and it was a 15-minute drive from home. But it would do.
One time, on a road trip to Philadelphia I used my Starbucks card to pay for my grande skim latte. The balance was just enough to cover the cost, and the barista asked if I would like to reload my card.
"No, that's okay," I said. "I actually live where there aren't any Starbucks."
"Where do you live?" he asked. "On the moon?"
I had already left for a year in America - a Starbucks on every corner - before the first two stand-alone stores would open in downtown Halifax.
When I was at this newspaper in 1993, a new group of reporters and editors hired from Toronto and Ottawa and Vancouver were depressed by the takeout coffee choices in the city. So one day a colleague and I telephoned a Starbucks in Vancouver, ordered 20 pounds of coffee and sold the bags of beans in the newsroom.
My own passion for Starbucks is robust but my best friend borders on obsessive. For the longest time, she was reluctant to travel from Manhattan to Halifax to visit, until I discovered the Chapters kiosk.
One time, on a February drive to Plaster Rock, she asked sincerely if there might be a Starbucks on the way. I nearly drove into the ditch. On the way to Maine one Boxing Day, she made me drive all over Saint John looking for a latte, to no avail.
She once made a pilgrimage to Seattle and Pike Place Market so she could say she went to the first Starbucks. In our frequent BlackBerry correspondence, she refers to it by its NASDAQ symbol - SBUX.
I have fortunate friends who own stock in the public company, which just posted a 20 per cent revenue growth in its third quarter on the strength of 1,369 store openings over the past 12 months.
Cozy coffee bars, inviting armchairs, wireless Internet, wonderful baked goods, perfect and consistent lattes, Americanos and espressos. What is not to love and throw money at?
After all, Starbucks is hot, and they think Saint John is, too.
I am off to inquire whether we can arrange daily deliveries to the newsroom.
Shawna Richer is weekend editor of the Telegraph-Journal.
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