“Starbucks will open a Chicago location for Princi, its second U.S. location and its first outside Seattle.
The Windy City location may be the latest sign that an established giant is eager to truly test a new concept. The opening comes just a day after Amazon opened its first cashier-free Amazon Go store outside Seattle, also in Chicago. The openings of both stores, while separate from each other, show how companies are setting their sights on urban expansion.
Starbucks' 2016 investment in Princi gave the coffee giant access to higher-end baked goods and another way to try to get people to linger longer and spend more. Princi's upscale shops sell food, such as sweet and savory breakfast cornetti (Italy's buttery, curved answer to France's croissant), pizzas, salads and sweets, as well as coffee, cocktails, wine and beer.
Princi is even more high-end and has fewer locations than La Boulange Bakery, the upscale San Francisco-based chain Starbucks bought for $100 million in 2012... the plan is to keep Princi product offerings for the standalone and Starbucks Reserve Roastery shops, massive flagships where coffee is roasted on site.
Chicago will soon to be home to another premium Starbucks shop... The Roastery will also serve the Princi food, as do Roastery locations in Seattle and Shanghai, and the latest one, which opened earlier this month in Milan...”
(via Starbucks opens Princi in Chicago)
