Starbucks To Begin Rolling Out "Starbucks Evenings" Where Starbucks Will Become Bars Serving Wine and Beer at Night

BusinessWeek - First, Starbucks (SBUX) wanted you in its cafes for lunch and the afternoon, so it spruced up its food offerings and started serving cold “Refreshers” and testing sodas. Now it wants you there in the evening, too, and it’s bringing out the booze. The coffee chain plans to roll out alcoholic beverages to thousands of stores over the next few years as part of a program it calls Starbucks Evenings, which starts after 4 p.m. A few things for consumers to note: The options will be bottled beer or wine, not cocktails, and the selection will vary to meet “local taste preferences,” according to a spokesperson. Customers should expect to be carded, and shouldn’t expect to find evening-time Starbucks turning into a bar. Starbucks considers its locations to be cafes, and the wine and beer won’t override the family-friendly atmosphere. Anyone working at a Starbucks that serves booze will have to be 21 or older. The chain will also offer new small plates to go with your drinks, such as bacon-wrapped dates and truffle macaroni and cheese.

Can you imagine the type of person you’d meet at the Starbucks bar? I don’t even want to think about it. It’s kinda ruining the good vibes I was feeling. Because now all I can picture is a swarm of people in fedoras sipping some bullshit made up Starbucks wine, and their art major baristas giving me snide looks because I asked for some ice cubes in my hypothetical red wine. The smug levels at the late night Starbucks craft brew and wine bar would be paralyzing. Smug levels going into uncharted territories.

Now let me just say this: I LOVE the precedent that is being set here. We should be serving beer everywhere and anywhere possible. It’s all about having the choice. Do I ever want to go to a Starbucks to get a beer? Absolutely not. But I love that I’ll have the choice. I love that the world will be just a little bit drunker makes me happy. Brings a smile to my face. There’s about a billion Starbucks in the USA alone, I love thinking some feminist will go in to one to do her thesis paper, end up getting plastered on Wineachinos, and end up going home with some guy. If that happens just once, then clearly the Starbucks bar is a smashing success.