UVillage reaches magical 4-Starbucks threshold
As the blogosphere crowdsources a definitive list of which locations Starbucks will be closing as part of its 600-store retrenchment, University Village mall just celebrated the opening of its fourth store, an expansion and refurbishment of the previous SBC location inside the QFC supermarket. The new store — a licensed one by the looks of it — joins the large central location at the mall, the smaller branch in the Crate & Barrel building, and the licensed location inside the Barnes & Noble. Fiddling while Rome burns, or a sign of things to come as UVillage prepare for a major expansion?
I frequent the UVillage and as much as I appreciate the convenience of a Starbucks within 4 strides of every store I drop coin at, I also favor variety. I used to think of UVillage as a unique and pleasant destination but now it seems to be turning into an overgrown strip mall. Just waiting for an anchor store like Target or WalMart and I might as well travel to Northgate or Alderwood Mall.
To be accurate, the B&N coffee shop is "The Barnes & Noble Cafe serving Starbucks Coffee," about as much an actual Starbucks location as the coffee stands at Safeco Field.
It’s fun to go to a B&N and watch people try unsuccessfully to use their Starbucks cards.
[...] it has also been awhile since I clicked through the pages. In the mean time, the 4th Starbucks store was raised up in University Village - a fairly cool place for people to shop and chill, yet [...]
the Seattle times is piling on the crowdsource… http://starbucksgossip.typepad.com/_/2008/07/seattle-times-b.html
Yeah, that Google Map was actually set up by the Times, people are collecting data based mostly on the StarbucksGossip thread…