Starbucks uses regional motifs to match locales

WSJ.com/Europe

Starbucks wants to blend in
Ubiquitous chain uses regional motifs to match locales

By Janet Adamy

AT A COFFEE SHOP in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood, Bridget Barnes snuggled into a navy chair beneath a row of vintage windows. The dark wood, living-room-style rug and molded fireplace mantle made her feel like she was in "an old Beverly home," the 25-year-old preschool teacher said.

But Ms. Barnes was actually at a Starbucks. In an effort to make its stores fit better into their surroundings, Starbucks Corp. has rolled out new decor and added a fleet of regional designers. They are preserving antique touches when the chain opens in old buildings, hanging local photos and picking color schemes that complement area sunlight patterns.

The new design methods are part of a push to make Starbucks' stores more locally relevant as the Seattle chain sets out to eventually have 40,000 stores across the world, more than triple its current total. Its proliferation has prompted a small number of cities to block it from opening out of concern the chain will erode the local character.

Arroyo Grande, California, last year restricted Starbucks and other so-called formula businesses from opening in its historic downtown after hearing the chain wanted to come there. In one Denver neighborhood, a landlord asked Starbucks to replace its standard green-and-white mermaidlogo sign with something more original.

Starbucks executives say the new design methods aren't a response to a backlash against its ubiquity, and they point out the company has always strived to personalize its cafes. Yet as the chain gets bigger, Starbucks is sharpening its rebuttal to the complaint that its stores homogenize towns. In its 2005 social-responsibility report, Starbucks devoted a section to debunking a complaint that it says it often hears "Everywhere I go, I see Starbucks. Pretty soon every place will look the same." In the report, Starbucks says it doesn't rely on a one-size-fits-all mold for its stores and is respectful of a neighborhood's desire to preserve its look and feel.

Starbucks used to design its stores largely fromits Seattle headquarters around four coffee-inspired motifs that used similar earth tones and plush, oversize furniture. But about two years ago, behind the bars that displays glasses, tea and flavoring syrups to evoke the mercantile feel of Starbucks's first location in Seattle's Pike Place Market. The designs use more upscale touches, like tile on the walls behind the counter instead of laminate or vinyl.

The result of the new methods is locations like the one that opened in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood in September. Instead of building a new store, Starbucks overhauled a limestone building once occupied by a Christian Science reading room. Builders assumed Starbucks wouldn't want the old the fireplace mantle and set it aside for themselves. Instead, a Starbucks designer reclaimed the mantle and made it the centerpiece of the cafe's entryway. Now it displays mugs.

Other store-development teams are deviating fromthe design formulas to add their own touches. InNewYork City, a realestate representative dug through city archives to find old photos of a vintage building where Starbucks opened earlier this year. Starbucks hung the black-and-white pictures on the walls. A designer who works on Minnesota stores adjusts the colors to offset the lack of sunlight during the state's long winters.

The new designs may do little to swaysome consumers' perceptions that all Starbucks feel the same. "It will still be too sterile and too perfect, too institutionalized, even while trying to be culturally eclectic," says Xtine Hanson, an assistant professor of visual communications at California State University, Fullerton. Ms. Hanson last year launched a Web site called www.delocator. net that lists independent coffee shops, bookstores and movie theaters because she says she struggled to find a Starbucks alternative while visiting New York.