Chapter 15 - Retailing

Starbucks is essentially a chain store as all the coffeehouses are owned and manage by the company. They have over 170 stores in NYC. Starbucks locates It’s stores at highly observable places or central points close to Bus or Subway Stations. The company also cooperates with other retail stores such as Macy’s to create brand recognition and sell their coffee. Starbucks licenses their brand for other drink and food companies to help build as they are a specialty retailer. Their mission statement involving customer service: “When we are fully engaged, we connect with, laugh with, and uplift the lives of our customers – even if just for a few moments. Sure, it starts with the promise of a perfectly made beverage, but our work goes far beyond that. It’s really about human connection.” Reflects a high level of the stores overall atmosphere and customer service.

I visited a Starbucks on 51 Astor Place. Located near 8^th Street  right outside the downtown 6 train (St Mark’s Place) the area has housed two Starbucks coffee shops until one closed recently. Students and late twenty to early thirty-something comprise the main clientele for this Starbucks. Nearby institutions such as The Cooper Union, NYU, and The New School provide a various mix of students, who use the coffee shop as a modified library. I ordered a standard medium roast coffee; the staff seemed genuinely friendly in taking my order as their coffee is already brewed so I did not have to wait on the other side of the counter. This Starbucks is especially large, by boasting lots of tables and few cushy armchairs. Although the building is old, it has been modified to include sunrooms on two sides.

While Starbucks’ corporate headquarters are in Seattle, NYC feels like the coffee chain’s second home, as there seemed to coffeehouses on every corer. There are lots of unique Starbucks throughout the five boroughs of New York.