Starbucks Expands Beer and Wine Sales

submitted on February 4, 2012 by HouTex in "Stores / Merchants"

Starbucks began testing the market for alcohol sales in October of 2010 in a Seattle cafe, and recently announced they would add alcoholic beverages and snacks to the menu in California and Georgia, at 4 to 6 outlets in each market.

The company had carefully chosen the roughly 25 U.S. cafes that will be selling alcohol in the afternoon and evenings and that it has no plans to offer beer and wine in all of its 17,000 cafes around the world.

It now sells beer and wine, as well as evening snacks like cheese plates, flatbread and desserts, in five Seattle-area stores and in one cafe in Portland, Oregon. Beer sells for $5 and wine prices range from $7 to $9.

The company, which is testing beer and wine sales in Spain, previously announced plans to bring the new "adult" beverages to as many as seven Chicago-area cafes by the end of 2012.

Starbucks also plans to open juice bars in the United States this year, a move some analysts said is more compatible with its main business.