It’s closing time for more than 400 Starbucks stores that sell alcohol.
On January 10, the “Starbucks Evenings” program, which sold beer, wine, and food in an effort to prolong the morning coffee rush, will shut its doors. The program started in 2010 near Seattle and spread to 439 stores before the corporate office decided it just wasn’t working.
In 2014, Starbucks said that it would sell alcohol in “thousands” of stores, the Associated Press reports. There’s ambition, then there’s a time for lowered expectations.
Only high-end Starbucks locations, like their “Roastery” stores, will sell alcohol in the future. The Roastery stores roast their beans onsite. They may eventually become an entire sister chain run by former CEO Howard Schultz, The Street reports. This move is essentially transitioning the more classy role Starbucks Evenings tried to attain to the new Roastery shops. Turns out Starbucks knows who they want to take them home, and it’s not Starbucks Evenings.
Throw one last rager at your local Starbucks Evenings before it disappears, because once it’s gone it’s not coming back. Just remember: every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
