Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is looking to jumpstart the struggling coffee chain by making the java giant’s locations more welcoming — and the company unveiled its first remodeled store in the Hamptons.
The renovations add plush seating, open outlets for customer use and soft lighting to encourage customers to stay longer as part of Niccol’s ambitious turnaround plan.
“It’s creating comfortable seating where people want to come in. It’s not just the quick grab-and-go concept,” Mike Grams, Starbucks’ chief operating officer, told CNN during an interview Friday at the Bridgehampton outpost.
“Maybe over past years, we lost our way a little bit on that.”
The remodeled location — one of four that have been redesigned in the swanky Hamptons — has deep green walls and a mix of light- and dark-brown wood. Plants and bowls of coffee beans decorate the store, with an open espresso bar and a digital menu board, according to the CNN report.
Customers chatted as they lounged in cushioned armchairs, orange booth seats and high-top tables, while others worked on their laptops at small tables.
The comfy setting is a stark change from Starbucks’ efforts to keep the masses caffeinated and out the door as fast as possible.
Over the past few years, some 30,000 seats have been ripped out from locations and replaced with wooden stools.
Electrical outlets were covered to turn away laptop users and takeout counters were built to cater to customers on the go.
But that strategy backfired.
Same-store sales have fallen for five quarters in a row as customers have pivoted to local coffee shops and smaller chains.
Niccol, largely credited with boosting results at Chipotle and Taco Bell, was brought in last year to revive the Seattle-based company.
He plans to remodel 1,000 Starbucks stores, or about 10% of its company-owned US locations, over the next year.
Each redesign will vary, but they will all include new lighting, colors and better acoustics, according to Meredith Sandland, a former Taco Bell executive who was hired as Starbucks’ chief coffeehouse development officer in February.
Locations will also offer a variety of different seating to cater to customers holding meetings, reading a book or working on their laptop, Sandland said.
Since taking over last September, Niccol has already brought back self-serve condiment stations and cut 30% of the menu.
He also led a purchase of around 200,000 Sharpie pens so baristas can doodle messages on cups and implemented free refills for sit-down customers in ceramic mugs.
The goal is to return Starbucks to a coveted “third place” – a spot where people can linger in between work and home.
“I think of a ‘third place’ as a place that should be warm and welcoming (and) feel a little bit more like a hotel lobby than maybe a fast food restaurant,” Sandland told CNN.
Starbucks largely lost that image as it opened more drive-thru locations and focused on mobile orders, which make up more than a third of the company’s sales.
But the coffee chain is letting some of its nostalgic staples stay in the past, like its cushy purple armchairs, which Starbucks retired in 2008.
They were difficult to clean and the fabric easily grew worn, the company said.
“You will see something similar to it returning to our stores,” Sandland told CNN.
“Will it be purple? I don’t know. I’ll tease that one out.”
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