Just up your street, new Starbucks has landed

The created leisure and accessibility of coffee on the go but settling at the coffee shop is still a mainstay culture of work and lifestyle. American coffee company Starbucks is still cementing itself in SA, despite having a tough time adapting to the market after landing in Rosebank to much fanfare in 2016.

With predictions that the big brand wouldn’t survive in SA, Starbucks regrouped and changed its strategy to embrace the growing trend of artisanal local coffee stores and brands. The strategy included open-ing up shop inside a grocery retail store for the first time – in Rosebank, Checkers FreshX.

From their flagship store in Rosebank Mall, the second Star-bucks in the same location will be accessible for Checkers shop-pers and in the mall. This is part of a major expansion drive that will see eight stores open in a month within Gauteng.

Other stores are set to open in Cape Town, which will be a major drive of an expected five stores in the Mother City, one in Stellenbosch, as well as one each in Johannesburg and Pretoria. The in-store Starbucks is not only economical, it is a win-win situation for the brand, its customers and Checkers.

Shoppers can easily order their coffee of choice and drink it while they shop. The personalised cup of coffee is still a special touch. With the holiday season ahead, coffee drinkers can visit the store and enjoy the Star-bucks holiday menu, which includes a selection of handcrafted seasonal beverages.

Adrian Maizey, chief executive of Rand Capital Coffee, the licensee of Starbucks in South Afri-ca, said the FreshX Rose-bank store is “stunning”.It has been designed to deliver the Starbucks experience in partnership with Checkers FreshX, with an eye on opening more like it.

What accompanies this beautiful store is the equally impressive re-vamped Check-ers FreshX. Taken on a tour, it is clear this will soon be a chosen food super-market for many consumers.

From the freshest fruits and produce, convenient ready-made products and a Kauai in store, great for on – t h e – g o smoothies and lunches. There is also a unique speciality at this store – a honey bar. Customers can now fill a jar with as much honey as they want and are not restricted to the packaged jars of honey on the shelves.

Customers will also be streaming in for the personalised shelf of artisanal South African chocolate, Chocoloza, a blend of Belgian chocolate with the best South African ingredi-ents. Willem Hunlun, chief operating officer of Checkers, says this collab-oration between the brands will make the Star-bucks menu more accessible to consumers with the increased retail footprint through the Checkers FreshX supermarket.

“As Checkers continues to grow and expand its fresh offering, the partnership with Starbucks is evidence of our efforts to offer an improved and outstanding shopping experience.”

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