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Starbucks to Sell Beer and Wine in Select Seattle Stores

by Amy Judd | July 20, 2009 at 01:51 pm

677 views | 12 Recommendations | 5 comments

Starbucks, the famous coffee chain, is expanding their business plan to sell beer and wine in some Seattle test stores to try and expand to more European style coffeehouses.

In three as yet unknown Seattle locations, Starbucks will offer bottled bear and glasses of wine from $4 to $7. They haven't said if it will be their own brand of beer and wine, but in some states they will have to obtain liquor licenses from the State Liquor Authority before selling the new drinks. However, this is not expected to be a major legal obstacle.

Some Starbucks fans here would welcome the expanded drink menu.

"Beer and wine will be great because it gives them something other to offer than the typical latte. This will cause sales to go up," said Patricia Coleman, a Starbucks customer three to four times a week. "As long as they regulate the behavior [of customers], I'm all for it."

But others said the addition of beer and wine just messes with a good product.

"That's horrible, because it's a coffee shop. It's a place to get an awesome vanilla bean," said Alisha Anderson, 18, pointing to the Frappuccino in her hand.

"I don't want the atmosphere to change. At Starbucks, you can just chill and get WiFi."

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FerSamano

at 16:16 on July 20th, 2009

Nothing like a good coffee before start any job...

FerSamano has contributed a photo to this story.

Rory Cripps

at 17:08 on July 20th, 2009

Yes! Seattle is one of those U.S. cities that is a reliable predictor of things to come. My prediction is that Starbucks will be selling Ripple and Boone's Farm within the next few years.