The original Starbucks location gets a facelift

Starbucks’ latest remodel took on a particularly special location.

The coffee shop giant last week remodeled its original location on Seattle’s Pike Place Market. The changes are designed to give the location a cleaner look and a pared-down menu and a system designed to reduce crowds inside and outside the shop.

The biggest change with the upgrade is in how customers can access it. The long lines that have been a hallmark of the shop for years are being replaced by a reservations system. Customers must make the reservations on site and can make them up to 48 hours in advance but can then visit Pike Place Market or do something else while they wait their turn.

The location, 1912 Pike Place, receives hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. It is small, just 960 square feet. The front window features the company’s original siren logo. A marker inside notes that it is the chain’s first location. A pig sculpture made from coffee beans, “Pork ‘n Beans,” rests above the front door.

The location was originally founded as a retail shop where customers bought coffee beans, tea or spices. Drink preparation was only added later.

New store design

The remodel was designed to shift the shop from a high-volume location with limited interactions into one that highlights Starbucks’ coffee heritage and promotes storytelling.

Customers make their reservation at the location, then return during their allotted time. Workers at the location—Starbucks calls them “partners”—have received special training in the company’s history and have advanced coffee education, which qualifies them as brand ambassadors.

Starbucks simplified the locations menu, paring it down from 160 beverages to 30 core espresso-based drinks designed to highlight the chain’s coffee heritage. They include originals from the company’s early days, including Lattes and Cappuccinos along with pour-over coffee. The menu also includes Frappuccino beverages that Starbucks first launched in 1999.

The location will also feature rotating, exclusive beverages. This summer will include a Market Latte and a Market Tea Latte featuring honey from a Pike Place Market vendor Sunny Honey Company.

The location’s menu will also include a seasonal Pike Place Refresher beverage, currently a butterfly pea flower infusion. And the location will feature an international beverage, in this case starting with Fuji Apple Camellia Garden Tea from Starbucks Asia Pacific.

For the company, the changes are also designed to promote the nearby market, one of Seattle’s most popular attractions that features more than 220 shops and restaurants and attracts more than 10 million visitors a year. Many workers from the market get coffee from Starbucks before they start their shift. And by shifting to a reservations system, Starbucks enables customers to visit the market rather than wait in line.

Company wide changes

But the change also highlights one of the key components of Starbucks’ changes over the past year and a half.

Starbucks has worked to tap into its heritage as a coffee destination, even though the company itself sells a wide range of beverages. The company is in the process of remodeling thousands of company-owned stores to make them friendlier for consumers who want to sit and enjoy their drinks.

The company expects to remodel 1,000 locations this year and ultimately plans to remodel 8,000 locations total.

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