On October 7, 2017, Starbucks opened an adorable new drive-thru only store in South Gate. (South Gate is in the greater Los Angeles area.)
It’s super cute! It’s looks like a fairly unique design with partially steel panels and partially a concrete or permanent structure. It’s not a “shipping container” store but similar to it. At one point in 2015, I published an article with a listing of every true “shipping container” Starbucks and those that were prefab construction design also. Also, if you’re visiting Southern California, I have a list here of some of my favorite must-see destination Starbucks in Southern California.
Here’s the cute new South Gate Starbucks:
Starbucks
Firestone & Hildreth
4704 Firestone Blvd.
South Gate, California 98020
323 513 6700
By the way, there’s another Starbucks which has a design similar to this one: It’s the Tustin and Chapman Starbucks in Orange, California.
Starbucks has announced that there would be store closures of about 150 under-performing stores. It seems as the focus in new stores heavily emphasis drive through locations versus cafe only stores. Another new drive through location opened in Anaheim last October. With store closures, and new stores often being drive through locations, it makes me wonder if we will see many more of the Reserve Bar type of locations, which offer Reserve coffee and elevated brew methods? In March 2018, Starbucks opened a beautiful new Reserve Bar at Sunset and Mohawk in Los Angeles. The Hillhurst and Avocado Starbucks in Los Angeles is also a lovely Reserve Bar. (There are Reserve Bars all over the country. I mention the LA stores largely because Southern California is the only place that I frequently travel to.) I have more questions than answers! Do you think we’ll see many more of these cute little drive through stores?
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Socialize
The “drive thru only” stores (which, as the photo shows, is a misnomer since there is outdoor seating and a walk up window) work better in warmer areas IMHO. Other “drive thru only” stores I have seen are in Pomona and Covina, which incidentally are also predominantly Latino, working to lower middle class type communities like South Gate. The outdoor only stores are a lot less maintenance and don’t need to deal with the vagrancy problem which often plague Starbucks locations in poorer locations (such that they do things like cap power outlets or remove couches and softer seats in favor of hard chairs or even replace chairs with bar stools and higher tables).
You will have Reserve Bars at showcase locations that either have a high tourist population or higher end demographic. The first Reserve Bar I went to was in Sacramento next to the new arena. They had table service and unique food items and it worked well for that area even though a couple blocks away were single room occupancy apartments. The store closed relatively early except on event nights and it seemed to draw from a larger region than the immediate area.
Let’s not forget Howard Schultz is out and the Reserve program was/is his pet project. They originally said they would open 1000 Reserve Bars in 2 years. This announcement makes me wonder if that will still happen. We finally got a Reserve Bar here in Toronto this past winter (go figure it isn’t listed on the Starbucks Reserve website…) and I hope it doesn’t go away. The Reserve program keeps me as a customer, not the Frappuccino gimmick du jour for the kids.
This store looks like a twin to one at the intersection of Terrell Mill and Powers Ferry roads in Marietta, Georgia (suburban Atlanta).