Starbucks Opens Seattle Store with Revamped Look

Starbucks Opens Seattle Store with Revamped Look
March 17, 2009

Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. has opened the first of a series of more sophisticated-looking stores that emphasize traditional coffee drinks, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company recently opened a store in downtown Seattle featuring wood décor that is reminiscent of the company's first location, at Seattle's Pike Place Market. It is an environmental design that features recycled materials, including a large wood table that once was used at a local restaurant and inside a Seattle home. Among the notable changes, prices aren't listed alongside the beverages, except for a small selection of high-end coffees made in a Clover brewing machine. The board also doesn't list Frappuccinos. Instead, baristas direct patrons to disposable paper menus if they want to buy one of the sweet blended drinks or learn the price of the other beverages. A spokeswoman for Starbucks said the changes were aimed at making the store feel more like a coffeehouse. The changes may have been the product of the company's aim at retaining its customer base. "The issue at hand ... is the cost of losing your core customer," said Howard Schultz, the company's CEO, in an interview earlier this month. "It's very hard to get them back." In the past month, Starbucks has entered the instant-coffee market with a version called Via that the company bills as offering a cup of Starbucks coffee for less than $1. It also has introduced pairings of breakfast sandwiches and drinks priced at $3.95, or about $1 less than when bought individually.