Recently opened on June 16, 2014, in Woodburn, Oregon, there is a special drive thru Starbucks that is part of a design platform shared among just 19 stores in the corporation. These stores are all either built from prefab modular construction or made with reclaimed shipping containers.
Here’s the full list (as of July 24, 2014).
- Chapel Hills Mall – Colorado Springs, Colorado – A shipping container Starbucks
- Hwy 211 & Hwy 99E – Woodburn, Oregon – Prefab construction design Starbucks. (Opened June 16, 2014)
- 60th & Columbia – Portland, Oregon – Prefab construction (Opened May 28, 2014)
- 104th Ave SE & 240th ST – Kent, Washington – Prefab construction, and is designated a “micro” store. (Opened May 25, 2014)
- W E ST & N Ceneter ST – Casper, Wyoming – Prefab construction
- NW 53rd & 15th Ave NW – Seattle (Ballard neighborhood), Washington – A shipping container Starbucks
- 23rd & Union – Tacoma, Washington – Prefab construction (Opened January 6, 2014 – Store is mentioned in the middle of the linked article).
- 167th ST & NE 2nd Ave – Miami, Florida – Prefab construction
- 288th & Pac Hwy – Federal Way, Washington – Prefab construction
- Broadway & Devon – Chicago, Illinois – A shipping container Starbucks (Opened October 13, 2013)
- London Bridge – Virginia Beach, Virginia – Prefab construction
- 122nd & Halsey – Portland, Oregon – A shipping container Starbucks (Opened September 18, 2013)
- Goldenwest & McFadden – Westminster, California – Prefab construction
- 3300 S&W Temple – Salt Lake City, Utah – A shipping container Starbucks, also designated a “micro” Starbucks.
- Pleasant Hills & Forest Grove – Roseville, California – Prefab construction, also designated a “micro” Starbucks.
- Powers Ferry & Terry Mill – Marietta, Georgia – Prefab construction
- 104th & Bannock – Northglenn, Colorado – A shipping container Starbucks
- Reclamation Concept – Tukwila, Washington – A shipping container (and this was the first of its kind – the first of all these stores). (Opened December 13, 2011)
There is one more that is considered to be in the Starbucks portfolio of stores (because it’s operated by Starbucks, as are all SBC), and it is the Seattle’s Best Coffee drive-thru at FM 544 & Woodbridge Parkway, in Wyllie, Texas. That store is a prefab construction drive thru.
All of these stores are built to LEED® standards. Some are made with reclaimed shipping containers and others are made with a range of regular prefab materials. “Micro” refers to the stores that are under 450 square feet. For all of the above stores, they’re usually under 900 square feet and the entire store is assembled offsite, and then Starbucks delivers and installs the structure to the designated location. These stores can usually be assembled quickly and are sometimes designed to accommodate smaller store site locations.
One thing for sure, it’s very difficult to glance at any of these stores and figure out exactly what it is. I think the Chicago shipping container Starbucks looks a bit like the prefab modular construction design drive thrus. And some of the prefab modular construction drive thrus look like shipping container Starbucks. Notice that there are seven shipping container Starbucks in the portfolio of Starbucks stores.
To add to the confusion, there are a few Starbucks drive thrus which are NOT designed off-site and not modular but closely resemble these above store designs. A few Starbucks drive thrus have been given a wood clad facade, giving the stores a look quite similar to the above 19 stores.
I had the chance to visit the Woodburn, Oregon Starbucks on July 20, 2014, and want to share more photos of it. What a cute little store! I met some fabulous partners, and had a great visit. Notice that the drive thru side of the store has some reflective panels (like plexiglass) which reflect the surrounding foliage and greenery. It’s a beautiful touch to see the nearby trees reflected along the side of the store. I’m not sure my photos captured that, but I noticed that unique store feature.
I personally don’t even use the drive thru very often, but I think these stores have a very sharp and attractive design. It makes it fun to visit them. Props to the store design team – I think they’re dong a lot of fun things to create an incredible variation in store design, from the larger beautiful Evenings Starbucks to these cute little drive thrus. Just in case you’re curious, about half of the U.S. company-operated Starbucks stores have a drive-thru.
Before I started this article, I was fairly confused as to which Starbucks stores fell into which category. I owe a huge thank you to Alisha Damodaran, an official Starbucks spokesperson at the headquarters, who patiently answered all of my many questions about this unique category of Starbucks stores.
Hope you enjoy this and get a chance to visit this pretty Oregon store!
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Really nice store. So no seats inside only the ones outside? I can see sitting outside and just chilling!
@Purple1 – Me too! Though I completely forgot to ask if there was a customer bathroom? Even if not, there’s a Safeway grocery store in the same parking lot, and one could run in there I suppose. These is a nice area for this kind of store. Lots of highway traffic but it fits in nicely with the area.
I would think perhaps that wouldn’t the law require them to have bathrooms? So I also assume they do not sell any gift cards, mugs, etc.?
@Purple1 – I doubt very much that the law would require them to have a bathroom, but I don’t know. It’s one of those things, that as far as I know, varies from place to place in what the law looks like. I believe that for many states, there are some laws that regulate if a store has a certain number of seats, there must be bathrooms available. If the store offers no seating or limited seating, no bathrooms required – I believe this is the way it is in both California and Washington. I think there may be areas of the country where this isn’t even legislated/ regulated at all.
Doesn’t the store in Orange, CA qualify for the list ??? You did a piece on it after Memeorial Day, I think ??
ND=French Roast, office drip machine.
@Jeff from costa mesa – Orange is not on the list. I have to figure out some way to edit that article. I’ve learned the hard lesson that you cannot look at a drive thru and have much of an idea of what it is. Once Starbucks puts that wood cladding on the structure, you can’t tell what’s underneath – some of which are much more traditional structures, designed to look like one of these concept drive thrus.