Should be a big day on Capitol Hill. Block party kicks off. And 15th Ave Tea and Coffee opens its doors for the first time.
Be there Friday morning to say welcome?
Understand if you won’t.
Xciting, no?
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|New neighborhood coffee shop opens Friday
Is this the new coffee shop rumored to be starbucks, undercover?
It is Starbucks. :/
If they had opened by the 21st, would they have honored the FREE PASTRY coupons:
http://www.starbucks.com/retail/free_pastry.html
I make my own, home brew, from the best beans I can buy. Fresh ground, fresh brewed and often ice cold.
Coffee shop prices are just amazing.
Beer and wine and local food and live music.
What, no books?
Well I guess we’ll just see.
I can’t believe that your blog is supporting this phooey! Really, its just starbucks! Its an assault on our small businesses in Cap Hill. Sneaky, sneaky…and desperate.
really? a NEW coffee shop? it’s still Starbuck’s, just with a cosmetic makeover and the removal of their name.
“new” my ass…
I completely understand why some people are against this Starbucks. Not quite as clear on being anti Starbucks in general as Seattle needs all the corporate headquarters it can get right now. But that aside, from reading the prior postings I think some of the tactics used to relaunch this store were/are questionable at best. However, for perspective, remember this is just replacing a standard Starbucks that was already there. This just possibly might be better than an empty store front and better than what it replaces. And no one will be forced to go there and buy coffee. 2 other great places are just doors away.
BUT, no matter what your opinion, please remember that the employees are just trying to do a job. And in the current economy there are not a lot of options for some folks. The employees don’t deserve to be hassled. If the concept doesn’t take, it doesn’t take. The corporate office folks will not be coming out to the store to clean up any mess that is made while someone is trying to ‘make a point.’
And for the record, I don’t work at Starbucks and it is rarely my first choice of where to go to get my coffee.
I am as much a liberal pinko as the best of you, but I don’t get the Starbucks bashing. Disclaimer–not an employee and no stock. I also go to indies. But I do like Starbucks and the fact they offer employees benefits like insurance, 401, etc. I kknow most indies can’t or don’t. I also like that Schultz has been a national leader in drive for national health insurance and is a much needed corporate voice to counter the Chamber of Commerce drivel. If Starbucks wants to experiment with format more power to them.
Does anyone know if people who work at Smith get health insurance? Does Linda have any kind of community service program like Starbucks does? My girl friend was a barista at sbux for several years, and they had a program that would allow you to volunteer for an organization, and sbux would donate your hourly wage to that organization for every hour you worked. According to the sbux web site, sbux employees last year put in 246,000 community service hours.
The irony of the knee jerk anti-corporate blathering is that sbux gets the same vitriol as wal-mart. You would think that if your goal is to better the world, you would encourage businesses of substantial size and reach to embrace ethics and social responsibility.
Or you could just get hung up on some paint and a motif, and buy some Ipecac. Because that will totally show them.
What a joke!
Danny’s comment is spot on.
I’m not a Starbucks employee, contractor, stockholder, and my business has no connection with Starbucks or its industry. What I am is a 15+ year resident of Capitol Hill who patronizes all sorts of coffee shops, from Bauhaus, to Vivace, to Tully’s, and yes, Starbucks.
What’s interesting to note, is that for a long, long time, that Starbucks was really one of the only, if not the only, coffee shop on 15th. Those business such as Smith, Victrola, Ladro, etc. complaining about Starbuck’s re-branding are frankly, “Johnny-come-latelies” to the 15th Ave retail area. Instead of whining, they should view this as a challenge and step up their game.
This is a debranded Starbucks. They say it’s a response to perception of their Starbucks brand being perceived as premium/expensive.
I suspect it’s yet another tactic to take business away from true local/small business owners.
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/408205_starbucks17.html
Lila chang,
Wasn’t Starbucks a local/small coffee shop at one point in time? What you are saying is don’t be successful and grow and bring more jobs to Washington. Not to mention that Starbucks offers benefits to part time employees that most retail employees would never get.
Sorry — there’s a bug causing highly rated comments to appear as ‘below viewing threshold’ — working on it!