As regular readers of this blog know, I’m on a journey to write about as many Clover Starbucks locations as possible. Next stop: Lexington, Massachusetts. I visited this store on March 27, 2012, and had a chance to meet up with the store’s manager, Adam.
This was one of five pre-scheduled store visits on my trip to Massachusetts. It was also the first of all the store visits, so it is the first one that I am publishing at StarbucksMelody.com.
I had planned to get to the store fairly early in the morning. In fact, I generally try (though I don’t always succeed!) to arrive at a store before 7:00 a.m., because generally speaking, I prefer to take photos before the store is extremely full of customers. I actually made it in the door shortly before 7:00 a.m.
On this Tuesday morning, I arrived and quickly struck up a conversation with Dave, the shift supervisor on the floor at that time. It seems as though I arrived shortly after boxes and boxes of inventory came in. Also, there was a ladder in the lobby near the windows. Dave explained to me that the store had had a broken window shade, and that a repair man had arrived shortly before me to fix the window shade.
In the time that I hung around taking photos, and eating my oatmeal, Dave very efficiently was putting boxes away, and in no time, the lobby looked great. If I had arrived just an hour later (or maybe even less), I would have missed both the repairman and the inventory.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit. Dave, as I learned, is trained as a paralegal, but loves the rewarding work in Starbucks, and genuinely enjoys connecting with customers and learning about coffee. His favorite coffee is Komodo Dragon. He immediately put me at ease, welcomed me to the store (with a winning HUGE smile!) and let me know that the store manager would be by shortly. And indeed, Adam arrived not too long after I got there.
I chatted with Adam, who started with Starbucks in 1999. We had a good laugh talking about Tiazzi blended beverages. Adam distinctly remembered them. He has been the manager of 60 Bedford for almost 8 months. I love his attitude. He told me that he “starts the world running on the right foot.” In the course of our short conversation, he mentioned that when the store launched Blonde Roast, he and a few partners took a couple of travelers of it to the nearby fire department to be more involved in their local area, reaching out to their community, and introducing them to Blonde Roast.
The store has a lot of great partner art in it! It turns out that one of the baristas, Nikki, is very talented at doing the chalk art signs for the baskets of coffee.
There is local art from the community hanging on one wall, which is something that I always think is a nice touch.
It appears to me that the store is due for their “major” remodel, so I hope that a year from now I can come back and do an update article on it. Hopefully then it will feature a beautiful new interior.
This store first opened brand new on October 2, 2000.
And if you want to visit, here is the address:
Starbucks store #7553
60 Bedford Street
Lexington, Massachusetts
(781) 863 – 1189
***
I have a number of things I want to write about in April, and a total of 6 store review articles from this trip to Boston. I definitely do not want to publish 6 store review articles back to back, so they’ll be spaced out during the month. I know a few folks are waiting for certain articles to get posted, and it will all happen sometime this month. Sorry, if you’re waiting for a specific article to get written and published.
***
Hope you enjoy the photos, and if you have been to this store, definitely chime in! (Or just chime in anyways. :))
Related posts
13 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Sponsors
Recent Comments
- DEVIN on Compostable Straws Land in Seattle Starbucks Stores
- coffeebeanz on Why do you go to Starbucks less often? (If that’s true for you)
- Willi on You can now buy a Siren statue: $6,000
- Willi on A major revamp of your drink recipe: Testing syrup extracts and cane sugar
- Skip on Why do you go to Starbucks less often? (If that’s true for you)
Yea Melody welcome home and great first store review of your visit to MA. So nice to see there still is such great chalkboard art. I love the fact that Adam and some partners took some coffee to the firehouse. This to me really makes the store stand out. Looking forward to more reviews and in particular your thoughts of the HS store.
Too funny! I was just at this store a few weeks ago and was going to suggest you check it out if you ever get to Mass. It happens to be one of my friends’ favorite Starbucks locations. I really like Starbucks locations that have fireplaces (very few do around here). During my visit, they had a local band playing – something they do every other weekend.
My perception was this was a very “community oriented” Starbucks so hearing about the store bringing coffee to the fire station sounds like something this store would do.
When I visited, I had wondered what the location was prior to being a Starbucks. Did you happen to find out?
I’m looking forward to your other store reviews.
What a great store! Love the outside and the fireplace. Really nice that they took coffee to the firehouse. Can’t wait to hear about more of the stores from your trip.
Beautiful store and the fireplace is awesome. How does Starbucks decide which stores to remodel?
@Purple1 – Thanks for the big ‘welcome home.’ I feel like I have tons to write for the blog now. LOL
@Sandra – I believe that Starbucks puts their stores on a 10 year schedule for a “major renovation” – This store, having opened in 2000, is definitely due. Many stores get a “refresh” at the 5 year point, which means minor updating of furniture or other small changes. Thought I’ve seen some “refreshed” stores that don’t look much changed from before.
It looks like a very nice Starbucks store. Is it me, or does the outside somewhat resemble a funeral home in that picture? LOL! I hope you enjoyed your trip. It would seem that you did enjoy it.
Chgo – It was hard to leave! I love being around my sister and niece. Funny you should ask what this building was before. I really do not know what it was. I was just meeting with a Starbucks partner to talk about the Magnolia (seattle) remodel, and he looked at this photo and said, “Didn’t that used to be a Friendlys?” Turns out the partner had spent a number of years in New England, and had even been in this store once. I had to ask what a Friendly’s is because it’s not something we have in Seattle. Apparently it is a chain of restaurants.
Oh Melody another place that is New England based- DD and Friendly’s! And looking at it again, I can see it being a Friendly’s. They have great ice cream although have been going through rough times and they are trying to revamp themselves (update their menu, reorganize, etc.). Re the emphasis with this store being so community focused I am amazed at how different stores in the same region have different views of community outreach. You would think on some level with the same DM, these stores would all be the same, but I know it revolves around the SM and the partners as well.
Loved your review of this store. Even though I live in MA, I’ve never been to that store and look forward to visiting now that you wrote this review. When you spend so much time in Boston, it’s very interesting to look that outside the city the Starbucks are very different with the fireplace.
Looking forward to your review of the other Boston area Starbucks.
@Melody – Next time you’re with the people you miss and love, resist the urge to go on msi, You owe it to yourself to be on vacation when you say you’re on vacation. That garden full of weeds will still be there when you get back. ; ) I’m sorry that there are so many miles between Seattle and Boston for you and your family.
I have heard of Friendly’s, but haven’t been out East since 1980. I have no idea what a Friendly’s looks like.
I used to be a Barista in that location and I loved working there.
I was asked to cover shifts in other locations, but I always remember that location as being my favorite.
(That Starbucks used to be a Friendly’s!)
@CaitlinBee – Welcome! Thanks for your comment, and confirming that it was once a Friendly’s! I’m sure I will get back to this store some time – Lexington is such a great little city! Hope you’ll poke around the blog at some of the other stories here, and “like” the site’s Facebook page. Not sure if you’re still a partner – sounds like maybe not – but glad to hear you had some good experiences.
Thanks! http://www.facebook.com/pages/StarbucksMelody/180068562003180
No, I’m not a partner anymore (I quit to move to Canada), but I am a faithful Starbucks customer (so much so that I’ve got a Gold Card!)
I did have good experiences there. Yes, I remember working very hard but I had fun, too. And you don’t get to say that about most jobs.
As a running joke, I would refer to the Macchiato as a “Mikado”
We were promoting the Maple Macchiato and I was walking around with a tray offering samples to customers. I stopped at a table and the topic of how to pronounce Macchiato came up. (For the record, it’s Mach-ee-ah-to). I told them that I used to call it a Mikado.
The Mikado is a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. The customer asked how I was familiar and I told him that my college chorus sange selections from the show. He asked me if I could sing a little bit. I ended up singing a small verse of Three Little Maids.
Follow-up to that story, a couple months ago, it was a busy Sunday afternoon, a customer came up and ordered a couple of venti white mochas. I was concentrating on either marking the cups or getting it correctly on the register so I saw his face when he came in but I was looking at my register screen.
He then finished his order with, “And a verse of Three Little Maids, please.”