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STARBUCKS Coffee in Victoria


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#41 Rob Randall

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Posted 28 November 2007 - 10:04 PM

In January, Starbucks will take over the former La Collina location in CRD Square, Fisgard and Government.

#42 zoomer

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Posted 28 November 2007 - 10:54 PM

Yay!!!!!! Ok, not because of starbucks...but because that plaza/square needs a restaurant/coffee shop type of thingy.

awesome.

#43 G-Man

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Posted 28 November 2007 - 11:07 PM

Plus Government Street is a little short on Starbucks currently. And you have to walk like 25metres in this area before getting to a cafe.

#44 Galvanized

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Posted 29 November 2007 - 02:05 AM

I'm glad something is going in there.

My vote for friendliest Starbucks has to go to the Gov't St one next to Eddy B.

I've also noticed every one I've visited lately has removed the US price tags.

#45 aastra

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Posted 29 November 2007 - 11:03 AM

Starbucks should be good for that location. At least they won't go out of business like the previous tenant did.

Just think, if the Starbucks in the Bay Centre at Fort and Broad had never moved from its original location in the Bay Centre at Fort and Government, there would be four of them on just that small stretch of Government Street. Not saying it's good or bad; just saying.

#46 Holden West

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Posted 29 November 2007 - 11:36 AM

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that location. It was where the Bay's Olympic souvenirs are now. Sharp memory!
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#47 Mike K.

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Posted 29 November 2007 - 12:09 PM

Sooner or later Starbucks locations will start cannibalizing their own client base (no, not that sort of cannibalizing!).

#48 gumgum

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Posted 29 November 2007 - 01:58 PM

It's good in the sense that it shows confidence in the neighbourhood.

#49 osmich

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Posted 29 November 2007 - 09:18 PM

Well, after 16 years of going to Starbucks I am through. No, they are not the only place I have gone in the last 16 years but I always know what I am going to get with them and I suppose that is why I kept going.

I have always liked to support local coffee shops wherever I have been and, like in Victoria, Habit, Bean Around the World, Moka House and some others are frequent haunts of mine.

The reasons for my ending my sbux relationship:

1. Their adamant stance on keeping their pricing where it is even when the CAD dollar was above the USD. Yes, they have ripped all old tags off and replaced with one CAD dollar tag because they are tired of listening to people like me complain. I have written a letter and have not heard back yet.

2. I don't know about you but my closest location has a revolving door of staff and as a frequent customer I found it more and more difficult for the newbie to learn my drink, which is not very hard. I like a 16oz personal dark roast, no room and make sure it is the freshest one you have. I have ordered that beverage consistently for 3 years at this location. The last year has been real tough there as many new faces arrive each month. When I say I want the freshest they have they look at me as if I am foreign. I don't like when their coffee has been sitting too long on those burners - what is wrong with that? One newbie argued with me about what I really wanted and that prompted a letter to sbux. I had seen him interacting with other staff and figured they did not like him either and sure enough he is not there anymore.

You remember their previous campaign of "YOU CALL IT, WE'LL MAKE IT?" Well not really so for many of the employees. They created us monsters who like our beverages a certain way and then they get pissed when I ask for the freshest dark roast they have. I have felt that staffing at sbux is not what is use to be.

3. Starbucks is just in way too many places now and enough is enough!

By the way, I have written letters to Starbucks regarding several situations and I will be writing one last letter stating that I am finished with them. I will let you know the response.

#50 Holden West

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Posted 02 January 2008 - 07:26 PM

Why Starbucks actually helps mom-and-pop coffee shops

Soon after declining Starbucks's buyout offer, Hyman received the expected news that the company was opening up next to one of his stores. But instead of panicking, he decided to call his friend Jim Stewart, founder of the Seattle's Best Coffee chain, to find out what really happens when a Starbucks opens nearby. "You're going to love it," Stewart reported. "They'll do all of your marketing for you, and your sales will soar." The prediction came true: Each new Starbucks store created a local buzz, drawing new converts to the latte-drinking fold. When the lines at Starbucks grew beyond the point of reason, these converts started venturing out—and, Look! There was another coffeehouse right next-door! Hyman's new neighbor boosted his sales so much that he decided to turn the tactic around and start targeting Starbucks. "We bought a Chinese restaurant right next to one of their stores and converted it, and by God, it was doing $1 million a year right away," he said.


"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#51 Caramia

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Posted 03 January 2008 - 02:10 AM

Well now that's an interesting business model... locate beside Starbucks. I have to say Mocha House still seems to be doing well. What I can't understand is why anyone would go to Starbucks on purpose however, when their coffee tastes like battery acid, and there are truly sublime coffee shops like Habit in town.

#52 gumgum

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Posted 03 January 2008 - 09:32 AM

I'm not the biggest fan of Starbucks either, but when it comes to the village, Starbucks wins hands down over Mocha House concerning fast, friendly service. The little coffee place in the food court...good coffee, good service.

#53 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 03 January 2008 - 10:25 AM

Interesting article, Holden -- thanks for posting. See also Towards a Starbucks-urbanism?, which deals with locative media (mobiles, laptops, etc.) and how Starbucks-type places provide platforms for socializing and doing business under a changed paradigm.

From the blog entry: we know this argument, right?

Particularly in the post-911 world, the function of these [traditional coffee house and traditional public] places to provide random encounter is practically eliminated in these insulted pay-access locations under the operative logic of ‘risk aversion’. Based on these observations, sociologists and urban theorists have developed a narrative of loss and decline in the contemporary literature on public space.

But here's the spin that The Mobile City puts on it, which is really intriguing:

Yet other more empirical research studies, such as Portable objects in three global cities: the personalization of urban places by Ito, Anderson and Okabe show that this binary opposition is too simplistic. In the article they describe a number of tactics through which people appropriate urban space. One of them is camping:

One brings a personal media device and works with it in a public space. Yet the goal is not to completely shut off public space, the public space is especially chosen because one finds it an agreeable location to work from. Like reading a paper in a café rather than at home. … They put down roots that have temporal limits, but are more extended than commuters who are simply passing through.

Camping is not so much about shutting out the environment: ‘people saw value in residing for a period of time in a desirable location. Just as people seek out beautiful campsites to set out there gear and reside for short periods of time, urbanites find attractive public places to temporarily set up camp with the help of their information technologies.’ For campers Starbucks is not a proverbial non-place, but a local place they engage with, where they perform their identity, yet at the same time keep in touch with absent others, still being part of their ‘full-time intimate communities’

The blog entry concludes:

We argue that culture is no longer localized in time and space, but neither is it non-place. Instead, individuals inhabit a physical world of simultaneous environments, of localized time and space as well as of multiple telematic worlds in which they can be co-present with others at a distance.

Yet, this still leaves some questions. To what extent are the sites of Starbucks-urbanism parochial rather than public spaces? And if they are mainly parochial, to what extend is that a threat to urban culture? Are critics clinging on to old, nostalgic ideas about a public culture? Or could new locative media ‘discovery’ services introduce new forms of contingency into Starbucks-urbanism?

Too bad the Pup 'n Cup cafe thing couldn't take off. From my perspective, that's a whole 'nother social scene (dog owners), and if it were legal to take dogs inside a cafe, you could open next to a Starbucks, and do booming business. Add wifi for all those folks who have quiet dogs and who want to get some laptop business done while they're out with the pooch, and bob's your uncle! :)
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#54 Holden West

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 10:55 AM

In Vancouver, something blew up the West Broadway Starbucks and neighbouring Taco Del Mar.



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"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#55 G-Man

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 11:01 AM

I heard it was likely a gas leak at the Taco Del Mar.

#56 Holden West

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 11:13 AM

I think that's a common reaction after eating at Taco Del Mar.
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#57 jklymak

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 11:20 AM

^ They have Taco Del Mars in Canada?

Hmm, so they do. Even Campbell River has one. When do we get one? I lived off Taco Del Mar while at school in Seattle. They aren't authentic, but they were cheap and filling, and probably relatively healthy (compared to Dick's).

#58 Holden West

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 11:36 AM

^Ha, you're too late.




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"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#59 jklymak

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 11:59 AM

^ It didn't make it? Darn Pita Pocket!

#60 Mike K.

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 05:05 PM

Hey man, don't diss the Pita Pocket! :)

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