Starbucks holiday merchandise is now officially in stores! On November 12, 2013, Starbucks transformed all their US stores, welcoming the holiday season with a “Share Joy” theme. I thought I’d shine a spotlight on a little bit of the merchandise – this is by no means everything, and I think I will end up writing about food separately. I took all of these photos on November 12, 2013, in Seattle’s University Village Starbucks location.
There are several different little ornaments for sale for your tree! (Or your ornament collection.) Five cities received tiny You Are Here style mugs as ornaments. There is a standard red ornament, and a Swarovski ornament too. The Swarovski holiday ornaments retails for $39.95 in the stores, though it will be hard to find. It’s possible your store only received a couple of them, and they’re already sold out online at StarbucksStore.com.
This year’s holiday bearista bear, as well as a ceramic mug, are designed by designer Stacey Bendet. They are part of the “Alice and Olivia” design, and are already considered to be highly collectible. These too will probably sell out quickly.
One thing that is new is that this year the Espresso Roast Christmas Blend comes in Verismo pods. The regular Christmas Blend returns in whole bean form, Via Ready Brew, Verismo pods, and K cups. There are cups with matching small serving plates this year. I have heard that the plates will not be offered in all stores, but you can find them on StarbucksStore.com. The little pastry plates come in a set of four, and retail for $29.95. The matching mugs and pastry plates are labelled made in Germany. There is a gift pack with a sampler series of Starbucks’ coffees. Each one has a cute little burlap sack, and a description of the coffee. And of course, there area variety of holiday mugs.
I will write about the holiday merchandise again, but I thought it would be fun to do a very quick overview of what you may find in your local store. What catches your eye?
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I have some really nice pics from my local store too. It seems they have bounced back a little for this year and it looks really festive. Seems like “more” than recent yrs. I haven’t seen a ‘you are here’ ornament yet, but think that’d be nice. I actually have old versions of the red cup, plain mug w/siren and so much more.
I wish they still did the red t-shirts every yr for the partners! Those were always fun to anticipate. (the red aprons are nice but…not the same)
Oh, and there’s that cap a partner gave me way back when: baseball cap with a snowflake and STARBUCKS across the front and then in the back: “It’s A Wonderful Store”. (I think you have a pic of it Melody) That’s really kind of a treasure to me….
I guess I have to take the other approach and say I am disappointed in the holiday merchandise and displays this year. I find them very lackluster and do not get the holiday spirit when I walk into my SB. Perhaps it is this individual store. I do like the bear though.
This year was very lackluster.. and the cutesy kid cups with an animal is missing..the peppermint cup and spoon are cute, but nothing like the fox from last year and the airplane mug and mouse mug from previous years.. really miss that.
Stopped by my local store yesterday and they too had transformed the store into holiday heaven ♥ . I did not see the bear, but am surely on the look out! Additionally, my local store rearranged the front end which I must say was a smart idea! Now the condiment table is by the door instead of blocking the order pick up area!!
I LOVE the holiday set up this year. I think the packaging is beautiful!! I like that Blonde coffee lovers get to enjoy Christmas blend with the rest of us!! I liked everything I’ve seen. I have the regular ornament for this year but haven’t found the Swarovski yet. We are gonna hunt it down again this weekend though!!!! I do like the serving plates, you could have a coffee/tea party at home , that is AFTER picking up a loaf of gingerbread cake and the cranberry bliss bars!
I always think it’s interesting what people want in holiday merchandise, and design. I think a lot about the Christmas mugs of yesteryear.
http://www.starbucksmelody.com/category/holiday/
^ You can flip through and dig and see a few things from holiday past.
In the 1990s, Starbucks sold complete pottery sets nearly – http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2011/06/24/what-christmas-holiday-merchandise-do-you-want-to-see-at-starbucks-this-year/
From the 1990s through nearly about 2004 or 2006, the stores were PACKED with merchandise. So Starbucks has cut back on what they sell.
If you’re reading this, and not a fan of this year’s holiday set up? I’d love to hear what it is you do want to see! Thanks! Is it the merchandise? The holiday design and posters? A tree? (I think in many year’s past, Starbucks had a tree in all their stores – a fake tree, but nonetheless, a tree.)
Thanks!
i plan on dropping by a Starbucks today to see what is there….I love the Alice + Olivia mug, it’s adorable! The coffee sampler is presented really nicely, I think as well. Plus I heard that some of the stores are using festive cold cups this year, which I hope to see…I haven’t seen any yet (might be a licensed store only thing, so that could be why I haven’t seen them).
I will be disappointed if I don’t see a tree in the store. I always loved seeing the color combination for that year and how it was decorated. Guess I’ll see soon!
@Hayley – Oh the festive cold cups! So cool! I have pretty much figured out that those were only sent to the warm weather Starbucks markets. None at all here in Seattle. A California partner said she was sending me one, so I might have to write separately about them when that comes in the mail. I’m jealous – You should definitely have the holiday cold cups where you are! It’s warm there!
For me the holiday decorations are pretty ordinary and as I have mentioned before I feel that SB could expand the posters and the merchandise to take into consideration people that do not celebrate Xmas. I wish they would use other colors besides the Xmas colors and make the store look more festive. Walking into the store now I really do not get a true sense of a holiday approaching on any level. I also remember once years ago they had merchandise for the pet lover. Nothing now. Be creative!
I LOVE the swarovski ornament! And because I love it I will never find it. The holiday stuff at my store is out in full force and I am a happy Dana.
I love the You Are Here style mugs as ornaments, the are so cute!
The cities that got YAH ornaments are Seatte, SF, LA, NYC, and Hawaii.
I remember when certain markets got full size Christmas city mugs. The ones associated with the parks series were great; the ones associated with the global icon series, not so much.
Some of the international markets are getting Christmas relief mugs, it seems. So far Hong Kong, London, Paris, Berlin, and Seoul have showed up on eBay. A couple of the US markets have regular relief mugs (SF, Seattle, LA, Boston, NYC) — any word on if they’re getting Christmas ones too?
I have not seen the festive cold cups, but wonder why they have to just be delegated to the warmer climate stores? I see lots of folks get iced drinks during the colder months!
@Purple1 – Trust me, I want the festive cold cups in Seattle too! We didn’t get them. I guess that you have to have a certain volume of cold beverage sales to make it worthwhile to send to a particular region – and Seattle isn’t a high-Frappuccino-sales market compared to other places. Nonetheless, I’m with you – I want them too. 🙂
@Melody, @purple1—So far I have only seen the Holiday Cold cups at the Licensed Starbucks locations only. I haven’t went to a Starbucks this week, but I will tomorrow(at the same time hunt down a PS4) to both a Corporate & Licensed to see is they Licensed only!
I been noticing Starbucks has been selling Holiday Blend in Grocery Channel(including in K-Cup), maybe a sign of the future to come for less popular Seasonal blends?
I very much like the set up this year. As a partner and customer, I feel like it’s much more vibrant than last year, and I think we’re going to sell more too.
The one thing that disappointed me was finding out that Canada isn’t getting the Christmas Blend Espresso Pods for the Verismo. It’s been my favorite of the holiday blends since it was launched, so I was very much looking forward to trying it. At least I live close to a US store.. I think I’ll be crossing the border very soon to get a few boxes 🙂
Just a update: After making a visit to my preferred Store(Corporate), I was happy to see the Holiday Cold Cups,along with the rest of the Holiday setup. So it does seem like it just for strong Frappuccino markets.
Melody–While I never been to Seattle( a place I SHOULD visit !), the weather (in Seattle) is just too cold for a Frappuccino(except as a dessert,maybe).
Tim I can tell you that there are many people in cold climates that get Fraps so I still do not understand why SB would not put out the holiday cold cups in this climate. Certainly, if you look at the menu boards there are fraps available all the time!
i got the Swarovski ornament today! it’s so beautiful!!!!!!!! i love the holiday merchandise this year! 🙂
@purple1 – While I agree that there are frappuccinos available any time of the year in most (if not all) markets, the number being sold in each market will determine whether or not the get fancy patterned cups that need to be used up in an allotted amount of time.
For example, I’m a busy mall store. I sell more frappuccinos (and iced teas and hand out soooo many ‘just a cup of ice water’s) at this time of year than most other stores in my city. And yet, even I go through only 25-50 cold cups of each size/day. By contrast, I can go through anywhere between 250-500 cups of each size of the hot variety a day. The fact is, if I were shipped fancy holiday cold cups, I would end up throwing away most of them because I wouldn’t go through them. Markets that are dominated by hot drinks are not going to get festive cold cups – it is not worth the extra cost. And that cost would undoubtedly get eaten by the customer in increased prices/less deals etc. Doesn’t seem like a good trade off to me… Markets that are dominated by cold drinks (typically called the Sunbelt Stores) will get festive cold cups.
Licensed stores have a different ordering system than corporate stores do, and since they are spending their company’s money and not Starbucks’, could choose to purchase festive cold cups if they so desired and they had the ability to.
Does that make sense? I know it doesn’t entirely ease the pain of not having festive cold cups, but maybe your barista will draw a fun festive picture on your iced green tea and it can be a fun connection piece for you and them each time they see you? 🙂
I love the merchandise this year but wish there was more of some items. For instance we sold out of advent calendars in days. I get at least three calls a day asking if we have any left. Although we didn’t get the fancy mug with the tutu, people have been calling us non-stop asking about that too (so, I assume they are hard to find). I have to say that I am puzzled by the coconut stackable mug…it’s not exactly what I picture when I think of festive items.
Denise are your stores dressing up for ‘Festive Fridays’? It may be a Canada only thing but we get to wear festive gear every Friday till Christmas. Not red t-shirts, but fun!
@Michelle: the only thing ‘festive’ (re: dressing) I noticed was the partners were all wearing their red aprons yesterday (Friday). I’d been told that they wouldn’t be wearing them unitl 12/01, altho I had already seen them worn earlier in the week in a couple other stores so…I don’t now. That even seems to be kind of hit and miss.
@chcg: (don’t remember exact username, sorry….where are you anyway?) wanted to let you know that the original Mt Prospect store…now on NW Hwy and just west of Rt83? is moving into the old Caribou store, just a block east? should be in and open by Feb., I’m told and…. will have a Clover!!!!! Yay!
Denise R the partners around here have been wearing the red aprons on and off with the green aprons. I did not realize there was a specific start date for wearing the red aprons. Is that store getting a clover because it will be a bigger store? I am curious because I always thought my local store would be ok with a clover but others think they would not make enough sales to warrant it. I can certainly say I have seen an increase in the number of customers and one of the partners when I asked indeed said the sales in the store have gone up.
@purple1: the store that is getting the Clover is actually the smaller of the two in Mt Prospect but it’s gotten very very busy since Caribou closed right down the street. It’s actually a small space (relatively), where it’s been since ’96, and will have a bit more space when they move down the street. They actually are right across from the commuter station (either place) into the city where hoards and hoards of people get off and on every day but ironically, and the dm was just saying the same to me, they are a very very small part of Sbux business.
So, basically I feel sure a Clover will do fine in this store but I don’t know the exact parameters of what determines that. I do think it may draw from the 2nd store (my ‘regular store’, with the very bad remodel but exquisite holiday decorations/products? and good partners) . I know I’ll be headed back to my roots in Mt Prospect just for the Clover and Reserves. These 2 Sbux are only about a mile apart, and no drive thrus.
OK, sorry O.T. Melody, but did want to get that info out there.
@Denise – the OT conversation is totally fine. I’m happy for you that you’re getting a Clover close to home. 🙂
Just came back from the El Cerrito/Wall store, and although the Holiday display was up, it was kind of haphazardly put together. It’s a busy store, so I can understand if posters weren’t installed right. I did notice that many folks took advantage of this week’s tumbler sale, as that display was quite picked over. There were advent calendars still available, as I noticed the package advertised a mini $5 gift card included. The advent calendar concept looked like each day was a container that Alton Brown uses to keep his spices in! I didn’t whip out my phone app, as it was quite busy at the 2 o’clock hour for the share/joy drink special…
When I get paid tomorrow I’ll be getting the barista mug.
Really disappoined that the Espresso Roast Christmas Blend is coming out in beans this year – went looking for it today, as it’s my favorite roast of all.
As with a lot of things, I seem to be on the unpopular side of Starbucks – every time I like something, they get rid of it ;(
Still plenty of the advent calendars available in our stores.
@theatrenut – Starbucks hasn’t gotten rid of Espresso Roast Christmas Blend – you should be able to easily find it in stores. Here it is on StarbucksStore.com –
http://www.starbucksstore.com/starbucks-christmas-blend-espresso-roast/011007935,default,pd.html
@theatrenut: we have plenty of Espresso Roast Christmas Blend in the stores around me. (Chicago area)
Ah, thanks. I misread what you posted before.
I’ll check another store.
Oh my goodness! How cute is that bearista bear? I’m so jealous you still have them! I haven’t seen one for about a year now. Maybe they weren’t as popular here. So sad. And that ceramic mug is too adorable for words! All in all, I simply love the holidays at Starbucks. Thank you for sharing, Melody! 😀
Hi Melody,
There seems to be a new January 2014 espresso mug tumbler. This is similar to the previous years coffee tumblers, but is for espresso and sells for $65. They are on the counter at my local Starbucks.
http://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-inves-customers-to-share-the-spirit-of-the-season-this-black-fr
Although the price is higher, I am very tempted to snatch up one of these today.
Erin
I am an avid collector of the Starbucks Christmas Ornaments. Do you have any idea how many of the Swarovski Starbucks Ornaments were made in 2012 and/or 2013? Just curious as to how “limited” they were as it seems there are lots of the 2013 available on Ebay. Thank you!!
@Kaori: I wish I had pictures of all the ‘old’ bearista bears that I have bought for my (now 40 yr old niece, just bought this one for HER daughter)…..the ones in the (distant) past were in prs and elaborately dressed, especially the Christmas and Valentine’s ones. They had little ‘down’ jackets and scarfs and mittens etc and dresses etc. They were 1000X more elaborate (and cute) than these of recent yrs. I’m glad my niece has these..I’d like her to send me a picture of her collection..I know she has quite a few of them sitting around in her daughter’s room.
I am glad for this yrs bear….just doesn’t have the same detail, etc.
Bring back the Bears
OMG – I missed the advent calendar this year! It sold out in what seems like record time and I really, really, REALLY, wanted this one. :-/
That said…I really need to start my own Christmas Starbucks tree. I’m loving all the pictures of ornaments on white trees that I’ve seen this year. 🙂
I agree with ＠Dianne. I was excited when I saw the holiday display at a local store, but disappointed that there is no Kids Drinkware. No mug, no tumbler. I was looking forward to finding cute mugs…. The decoration seems simple but elegant.
Do you know if the Swarovski ornament can still ?be purchased at any store? I didn’t see any at my local Starbucks – I wonder if all stores got them.
Well < this Season at our Small Resort Twn. SB is Been Great!
We got Snow, Decorated Front Lawn and The Store both Inside and Out, Fireplace going , Couches & Tables all Full .. Me & My Buddy ( a Golden ) sitting Here , in my wheel chair, watching it all and Donations To our local VFW is Doing Great.. Buddy is Really attracting the Pretty Girls/Women and The Kids! He's a Real Chic Magnet!
I trained him well..
We 've been ave. over Last yrs Ave of $225 (ave 3 hr) a day in donations that go to our local VFW.. last wknd set new Record.Over $600 in 2 days !
When the wife was Alive she wouldn't Let us 2 go out alone..
Enjoy the Holidays People!
Life IS Short !
We Veterans Thank you Starbucks!
😉