Starbucks Goes Undercover in Seattle

Using a tactic that is virtually the reverse of its typical omnipresent cluster openings, Starbucks’ new plan for coffee supremacy is to go stealth by opening up new stores that claim to be “inspired by Starbucks” when, in fact, they actually are Starbucks — after a fashion. 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea is the name of the first Seattle shop, which opened its doors last week.

The décor is decidedly un-Starbucks-like (no hunter green sterile environs here), and instead resembles something you might see in New Orleans’ French Quarter: distressed wood, tin walls, mismatched furniture, a pastry counter, actual teacups and mugs. Add to this a menu of imported beer and wine, poetry readings, and manually served coffee beans and tea, and you’ve got what some are calling the appropriation of the local café culture and boutique environment.

But here’s what I’ve been wondering: Is Starbucks opening these stealth stores in an attempt to fool customers who dislike the chain into patronizing their company as business has taken a turn for the worse? Is the overall increase in anti-corporate sentiment potentially leading to an un-branding trend?And with two more locations already planned in Seattle, when will a stealth Starbucks make its way to the East Village?

You know it’s just a matter of time.

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Elvie Timson

Great job over again. I am looking forward for more updates.

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Ollie Shaigec

It's really simple, after all. St'ucks is stuck. Why? Because they serve stale coffee (often over roasted, "charred"). We want freshly roasted coffee. Period. Roasting in a geographically central location, distributing beans, inevitably stale (after 5 days beans become stale regardless of packaging, storage) is a money losing proposition. And this is the bad habit of St'ucks and many other chains. Ask your local coffee shop to show you their roaster. When we start to see functioning coffee roasters IN house, on the premises, we will taste sensational, fully aromatic coffee. S'ucks simply needs to put roasters in their shops (they have so many locations within close proximity to one another that one roaster could roast sufficient quantities for other shops near by). We want fresh coffee, regardless of the coffee shop's name. Stale coffee is prevalent. It's awful. The alternative is possible. There's a new coffee roaster set to enter the market soon and it is targeted specifically at in house roasting. Its design is brilliant. A child could operate it and produce excellent results with about 3 days training. Stay tuned.

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sex i want to do it

cumsquad

i love starbucks

uptight seattlite

and why anyone would want Starbucks to be their inspiration is beyond me... unless, oh yeah, we're talking about greed and making money....

Seattlites are not fooled... we're pissed and talkin trash. Starbucks has given this city a bad name - corporate greed is not what we are about. There are plenty of neighborhood coffee shops that deserve to be in that location far more than a company that prefers to trick its customers into shopping at locations that ARE affiliated with Starbucks and DO report profits on their earnings statements.

Quality.

Nora

I have a hard time believing the 'bux can pull off an indie model. Only time will tell, but I'd like to think Seattleites won't be fooled, or at least they'll be somewhat disgusted by the "inspired by Starbucks" claim.