Following two years of opening test shops to try out new interior designs and retail setups, now that Starbucks has made their big changes official with the roll-out of a new logo, it looks as though that experimental phase might now be over. Capitol Hill Seattle reports that the shop the company opened back in the summer of 2009 under the name 15th Ave Coffee & Tea, which looked a bit more rustic and like an authentically-local coffee shop, will be converted into a standard Starbucks over the next few weeks. Though the company told Capitol Hill reporters that the interiors of the shop will largely stay the same, the signs would all be updated and the usual Starbucks machines would be installed. Here’s a bit more about the future of these tests:
Going forward, it now seems clear, the coffee giant will be aiming for this upgrade of its core brand, not the creation of new ones… In the meantime, they’ve learned how to scale new offerings developed at the Capitol Hill shops as techniques like pour-over coffee trickle out to the global marketplace.
It also sounds like this particular Starbucks’ era of experimentation has come to an end. According to the company spokesperson, no more “learning environment” cafes are being planned at this time.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.