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One issue is that sharing your facilities with a different business (which probably has significantly different physical plant requirements) has its own set of problems. It's actually pretty common in cities more generally that you have coffeeshops that are closed in the evenings in the midst of a bustling restaurant and bar scene.

As I recall, Starbucks actually looked into doing some sort of wine bar transformation in the evenings at some locations. But I've never seen such a thing so it presumably didn't work out for whatever reason. And that's a single business.




As I recall, Starbucks actually looked into doing some sort of wine bar transformation in the evenings at some locations.

They implemented in at least one store in a Seattle suburb. I'm not a wine drinker, so I just know they had a flyer for it a few years ago. I don't know if it is still on-going. But your point stands: I don't know that one can flip baristas to sommeliers with a switch at 5:00. So is there a shift change? Employees are trained on both? I dunno, I applaud the thinking, but don't know that it's practical. I should run up to the Woodinville SBUX sometime and see if they're still doing it.


I thought it was practical because they already have the real estate and coffee sales gotta drop off a lot in the evening.

Pivoting into wine is easier than dinner.

And a lot of Starbucks’ customers would like a wine bar and don’t have great alternatives in many areas.

Only issue I could see is that a lot of places don’t let you take alcohol out of the bar you served it at.


I'm not sure about any Starbucks that transform into a wine bar, but several of their Reserve locations do serve alcohol.


Ah. Yes, I assume that's what the wine bar idea they were talking about a bit a number of years back has morphed into.

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/starbucks-reserve-store-sea...

It makes sense although I suspect it's more difficult than is obvious to handle rather different uses at different times of the day. (It's also probably notable that they're doing this in locations that are already pretty differentiated from the standard grab a Cafe Latte in a paper cup on the way into work.)


Now that you bring up specifics, I would believe you are correct. My fuzzy memory kinda confirms that it's more "you can have a glass of wine...or not" rather than "no coffee, only booze".




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