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Starbucks moves its factory into stores to break into the higher-end coffee market

Published: 2026-02-03 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/02/03, Starbucks, which already has more than 23000 stores around the world, seems to be no longer satisfied with being the world's largest coffee chain. Now, it wants to break into the higher-end coffee market.

Starbucks, which already has more than 23000 stores around the world, no longer seems content to be the world's largest coffee chain. Now it wants to break into the higher-end coffee market.

Starbucks (feature Reading), which already has more than 23000 stores around the world, seems to be no longer satisfied with being the world's largest coffee chain. Now it wants to enter the higher-end coffee market.

Last week, Starbucks opened the world's largest flagship store, Starbucks boutique bakery (Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room), in Seattle, the birthplace of the brand. What Starbucks wants to talk about is not a matter of scale. According to the New York Times, Starbucks plans to open 100 such boutique coffee stores to sell high-end coffee from around the world. With an area of 15000 square feet, the store combines digital innovation with the same old-fashioned style as the Happy Candy House. Starbucks will use the high-end coffee shop as a starting point, with 100 such high-end coffee chains around the world, with initial plans to open stores in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D. C.

It is said that Starbucks' store style is good at adapting to local conditions, drawing elements from the culture wherever it goes for store design, but this time, Starbucks wants to show consumers something different, peddling their coffee culture through the baking process.

In the Starbucks boutique bakery in Seattle, you will not see the familiar green mermaid logo, replaced by a simple star logo with a capital letter "R" at the bottom.

Walking into a new store in Seattle may give you the illusion that you are mistakenly entering a coffee roaster. The fully open baking kitchen exposes transparent restaurants carrying coffee beans into the baking machine throughout the storefront space, winding from floor to ceiling. On one side of the huge baking equipment are elaborate walnut coffee tables and chairs.

"it's a bit like the Willy Wonka chocolate factory." Liz Muller, director of global conceptual design at Starbucks. From the world's first Starbucks coffee laboratory in Amsterdam to the first train coffee shop opened in partnership with Swiss Federal Railway, the Dutch designer has led the creative design of several Starbucks stores.

The lights from the ceiling poured down into the copper silo full of coffee beans, and the falling coffee beans sounded like rain into a glass. Liz Muller explained: "on the one hand, the lighting on the top is to ensure the safety of the production process and the baking quality of coffee beans, on the other hand, it is intended to make a dramatic effect for customers' viewing experience."

While waiting for a cup of boutique coffee to be made, customers can sit on the sidelines and patiently watch the roasting of coffee beans: from when employees open rough sacks and pour out green beans, until they are roasted into the storage tank. If you are interested, you can even interrupt the barista at work and ask one or two questions about roasting and making coffee.

The Starbucks boutique bakery was built in 1910 as a dealership for Packard and Volvo cars and as an art supplies store. After Starbucks rented the building in 2013, the first thing Liz Muller did was to remove all the excess from the space, and she wanted to know what the space looked like in the first place. After dismantling, only white ink floors covered with mottled copper marks and Douglas pine wood-frame panels painted black were left in the building. Liz Muller decided to set about restoring these historic impressions, creating a coffee space through wood, leather and copper products. The biggest challenge Liz Muller faced during the design process was the design of the 15000 square feet of baking space in the middle, which she wanted to convey a sense of affinity and charm.

To this end, the design team chose teak wood with huge steel suspension beams and wrapped it with hand-sewn leather, so that the surface of the machine running in the entire production space was palpable.

It is worth noting that the Starbucks boutique baking tasting room will not only provide customers with a close experience of the baking process, but will also provide Starbucks selected brands around the world with coffee beans, which are expected to produce 1.4 million pounds of selected brands a year. As Liz Muller said, "this is not a show, this is a real factory." It's like we usually only show part of the calf under the skirt, and now we've opened the skirt for everyone to see. "

Of course, Starbucks is not the first brand to "lift up the skirt". We have previously reported that Lenovo took out the factory for people to visit, and it can also be seen through this Starbucks boutique bakery tasting room. this has become a new way for many businesses to strengthen their brand image in order to strengthen their ties with consumers through this way of displaying workflow.