Starbucks is moving into the wine and beer trade. Soon, you'll be able to get tanked when you drop in for a coffee.
The Daily Mail reports that Starbucks will open up to seven outlets selling alcohol in the Chicago area by the end of 2012. These stores will be the first outside the Pacific Northwest and, if successful, the beer and wine idea could go nationwide, and from there, who knows?
<<br />This isn't anything new., Starbucks is already testing the idea out in Seattle.
This might actually solve one of Starbuck's big strategic problems. Most of Starbucks' sales occur in the morning when throngs of coffee lovers come into the stores for their early fix. Starbucks has always had more difficulty attracting people after dusk. Serving beer and wine might do the trick. "We're really trying to expand the evening daypart," Starbucks spokesman Alan Hilowitz told the Chicago Tribune "Customers have told us they want to be able to come in and have coffee, or a glass of wine."
Significantly, the Chicago Tribune tells us that Starbucks is looking at other ways to get its night traffic up by experimenting with live entertainment, including music, poetry readings or theater, depending on the neighborhood.
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