When I first heard a while back that Starbucks was testing serving wine in its stores, I didn’t think much of it.
When I read today that they were expanding this test, the value proposition suddenly occurred to me.
Before, I was stuck on Starbucks as a coffee company. But, they also have another business — providing comfortable space for folks to sit and chat, read or surf the net. They call it the third place. It’s not your home or business, but it’s close.
I suddenly thought about the times when I’ve been out with friends, family or business associates and we wanted to catch up over a glass of wine or beer, but we didn’t want a noisy, or empty, bar. And we didn’t really want to sit at restaurant where everybody else is eating. We struggled to find a place to go. Often we settled for picking up some bottles of wine at a grocery store and heading home or going to bar. Neither was ideal.
Sipping some wine at Starbucks would be the perfect place for that.
I also thought about the times when I’m on the road — be it for business or vacation. It would be nice to have a low-key place to grab night-cap, catch up on emails (and blogs) and do some mild people watching.
I can see how this fills a nice niche for consumers. I hope their tests work.
