The social landscape of Starbucks is about to experience a drastic change. Normally a place filled with students frantically studying for their next big test, the new addition at Starbucks may now also attract students wanting a place to celebrate once the test is over.
The coffee juggernaut plans to add another dimension to their menu by offering beer and wine at select locations in Southern California by the end of this year.
Although an increase in profits is definitely a possibility, it’s astonishing that a red flag the size of a school bus wasn’t waved before making this decision. Establishments that serve alcohol usually share very similar characteristics of being loud and frenzied with an atmosphere that seems to never slow down.
In other words, the exact opposite of what many Starbucks customers have come to love about their favorite coffee shop. Beer and wine additions to the Starbucks menu introduce cautionary concerns to customers that were never an issue in the past.
The biggest concern to Starbucks loyalists should be the new type of customer that will now be crash-landing for their coffee experience: the drunken customer. The executives at Starbucks must have tons of faith in the public’s ability to know their drinking limit, because the inevitable wave of loud drunken customers should have been a reason enough to simply stick to a caffeine brew.
Granted, many customers that grab their lattes and espressos on their way to work in the morning will go unaffected by the new menu items. The company states that participating locations will start serving alcohol long after the morning rush after 2 p.m. on weekdays.
However, there is one group of customers that will definitely notice the changes: the countless students that view Starbucks as their studying sanctuary. Students flock to Starbucks, knowing it is a place where they can focus, in which the biggest temptations consist of a little too much caffeine or some extra calories from a coffee cake. By introducing alcohol and a louder crowd, students will be subjected to the exact environment they were to trying to escape.
When it comes down to it, by filling cold glasses of beer and wine alongside their steaming cups of coffee and cappuccinos, Starbucks is risking its biggest asset, its identity.
The company has placed two completely different worlds with the hopes of coexistence. Regardless of the outcome, curiosity will definitely be filling the seats. So let us raise our cups, glass or plastic, and embrace the inevitable crash. Cheers!