In the continued flailings of the Starbucks chain, here’s a new one: the stealth Starbucks store.
A Seattle outlet of the 16,000-store coffee behemoth is being rebranded without visible Starbucks identifiers, as 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.
Best part of the story:
“The Goliath is coming at me under a new name,” said Dan Ollis, owner of Victrola Coffee Roasters, a coffee shop on 15th Avenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, about a block-and-a-half from the made-over Starbucks set to open next week.
Ollis had noticed teams of Starbucks employees in his shop, making notes and actually placing them in folders marked “Observations.” The new store will echo the Victrola policy, for instance, of serving wine and beer alongside its beans.
Ollis had a question: “Are they going to go to Chicago and go against Intelligentsia? Is that what their new game plan is?”
They’ll still burn their beans.
