Publix to Test In Store Starbucks Kiosks
In the last few days, Publix has announced they will allow Starbucks to open kiosks in four of their stores as a part of a pilot program. In the last few years, Publix has been experimenting with operating their own cafes, but this will be the first time Publix will be offering a cafe kiosk operated by an outside source. The four test locations will be the Publix stores located on Gandy Boulevard in Tampa and the Winter Park Village Publix in Winter Park, and also two Publix stores in North Carolina in Charlotte and Winston-Salem. (Ironically, this will be Starbuck's second time appearing within the walls of that building in Winter Park, as that Publix was originally home to an Albertsons that opened with a Starbucks. You can read the post about that store here.) As you all probably have heard, the new Florida Safeway stores all added Starbucks kiosks as a part of their conversion from Albertsons to Safeway. According to speculation, Publix is supposedly testing in-store Starbucks kiosks as a service to better compete with new chains entering their territory (not only in Florida, where Safeway and some new organic stores are popping up, but chains like Wegmans that will be overlapping with Publix in North Carolina and Virginia). However, I have to wonder if the Florida debut of Safeway has something to do with this pilot program in the two Florida stores, like how a threat by Wegmans probably influenced those two test locations in North carolina. Anyway, the first two links in this post will direct you to articles with more information about this new pilot program if you'd like to read more about it.
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
The other 2 stores receiving Starbucks are not in Florida, they are in North Carolina. One in Charlotte and one in Winston-Salem. All four are listed at the bottom of the report for the Winter Park Village store.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I get for reading articles fast. Thanks for pointing that out, and I updated the post above. It makes sense the other two stores would be in NC, especially if Publix is trying to find an edge to compete with Publix.
DeleteBoth Kroger and Harris Teeter have Starbucks. Ingles in Western NC also has them.
ReplyDeleteLet me further speculate:
DeleteI don't believe the addition of these Starbucks kiosks at Publix are meant to gain an edge on Wegmans. If anything, I believe that Publix could be adapting to Harris Teeter since Harris Teeter shoppers are the type that Publix targets.
It could change, but as of now, none of the proposed kiosks are in the area that they're supposed to be competing with Wegmans.
Ingles, which is dominant in Western NC and Kroger which is dominant in Southwest Virginia also have Starbucks locations in many of their stores.
I do know the two Florida test locations are close (within a ten mile radius anyway) to the new Safeway stores, both of which have Starbucks. It would make more sense for Publix to be doing this to compete with Harris Teeter and Ingles with the NC test stores, but it seemed like all of the articles were jumping to the conclusion that Publix wants an edge on Wegmans. Publix has been experimenting with their own Cafes, mostly in new build stores with a select few older stores getting one installed. The "Publix Cafes" never seem busy anytime I've seen one, so I could see this being a better alternative for Publix.
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