I walk past this Starbucks nearly every day going to and from work. Too bad it's always a madhouse of tourists.
and the madhouse always blocks the sidewalk because street performers choose that storefront as a primo spot
Humble Beginnings - The First Starbucks Store
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Re: Humble Beginnings - The First Starbucks Store
#12An inspiring thought, but was it Starbucks or the wave that did it? (see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=956570)
I'm not (just) being provocative. I'm not even sure how you'd go about determining what caused the "Starbucks revolution", or even that it's possible to be certain about historical causation (as some history academics have suggested).
Re: Humble Beginnings - The First Starbucks Store
#13[deleted]
Re: Humble Beginnings - The First Starbucks Store
#14This article should also note Starbucks is experimenting with moving back towards "local" coffee houses[1]. I'm sure someone who currently lives in Seattle can give more information on how well this process is being received (instead of my own knowledge, which is that of someone who used to live in Seattle and follows local issues still), but I have a very low opinion of the strategy. I would prefer my local coffeesh…
There was a big brouhaha about the 15th street store because it looks so similar to smith, the pub next door. The fact that it's starbucks, but doesn't say that it's starbucks (they do say that they serve starbucks coffee, which no indy coffee shop would advertise), and the apparent copying of their neighbor left a bad taste in the mouths of many seattlites.
I've never been in, but I wonder why they chose Seattle as the test-bed for this sort of thing. There are so many cities that don't have a vibrant local coffee-shop culture (there are at least three indy shops within a two block radius of my apartment & the mom&pop convenience store across the street has an espresso machine). Why not try it out someplace where the consumers aren't as discriminating and aren't as likely to resent them for doing this?