LIHU‘E — The partnership between Lihu‘e bookseller Borders and its in-house Starbucks location has dissolved. The bookstore will start working toward opening its own in-store coffee shop in coming months, officials for both companies say. “We are going to be
LIHU‘E — The partnership between Lihu‘e bookseller Borders and its in-house Starbucks location has dissolved. The bookstore will start working toward opening its own in-store coffee shop in coming months, officials for both companies say.
“We are going to be re-opening our café as a Seattle’s Best in March,” Borders General Manager Helaine Perel said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.
A representative for the adjacent Starbucks who asked to remain nameless because the company has a strict policy of directing all media inquiries to the corporate office said Feb. 21 will be the last day of business, blaming the struggling economy for the corporate decision to shutter the store.
Perel said the Starbucks has been open for approximately two years, and acknowledged that many Borders locations have an in-house Seattle’s Best.
According to the Borders Web site, Borders and Seattle’s Best Coffee — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Starbucks — signed a licensing agreement in August 2004 under which Borders operates Seattle’s Best Coffee cafés in existing superstores and within new Borders superstores as they open.
Borders operates 511 superstores in the U.S., according to the Web site, and as of September 2009, 482 (more than 94 percent) featured Seattle’s Best Coffee cafés, each of which occupies approximately 1,400 square feet.
The Starbucks employee said the difference between Starbucks and its subsidiary is that Seattle’s Best cafés purchase the coffee product and then have Borders employees operate the stores. He said Starbucks originally purchased the Seattle’s Best line because it had Tazo Tea, a popular product, that Starbucks wanted to sell.
It is unclear if the only Borders location on Kaua‘i will be hiring additional workers to manage and staff the new café. The Borders Web site said café employees are trained on “Seattle’s Best Coffee brand standards and procedures,” and there are currently no Seattle’s Best cafés on the island although the product is sold in some locations here.
It is also unclear what will happen to the employees at the Borders’ Starbucks and if they could be transferred to other Starbucks locations on-island.
According to media reports, Borders and Starbucks reached an agreement in 2006 that created partnerships at six Hawai‘i locations. There is no indication that similar agreements across the state, nation or world are impacted by the change in Lihu‘e.
Phone messages left at both Starbucks and Borders corporate offices were not returned as of press time Tuesday.
For more information on Borders and Starbucks, visit www.borders.com and www.starbucks.com.
