Here’s the full list (as of July 24, 2014).
There is one more that is considered to be in the Starbucks portfolio of stores (because it’s operated by Starbucks, as are all SBC), and it is the Seattle’s Best Coffee drive-thru at FM 544 & Woodbridge Parkway, in Wyllie, Texas. That store is a prefab construction drive thru.
All of these stores are built to LEED® standards. Some are made with reclaimed shipping containers and others are made with a range of regular prefab materials. “Micro” refers to the stores that are under 450 square feet. For all of the above stores, they’re usually under 900 square feet and the entire store is assembled offsite, and then Starbucks delivers and installs the structure to the designated location. These stores can usually be assembled quickly and are sometimes designed to accommodate smaller store site locations.
One thing for sure, it’s very difficult to glance at any of these stores and figure out exactly what it is. I think the Chicago shipping container Starbucks looks a bit like the prefab modular construction design drive thrus. And some of the prefab modular construction drive thrus look like shipping container Starbucks. Notice that there are seven shipping container Starbucks in the portfolio of Starbucks stores.
To add to the confusion, there are a few Starbucks drive thrus which are NOT designed off-site and not modular but closely resemble these above store designs. A few Starbucks drive thrus have been given a wood clad facade, giving the stores a look quite similar to the above 19 stores.
I had the chance to visit the Woodburn, Oregon Starbucks on July 20, 2014, and want to share more photos of it. What a cute little store! I met some fabulous partners, and had a great visit. Notice that the drive thru side of the store has some reflective panels (like plexiglass) which reflect the surrounding foliage and greenery. It’s a beautiful touch to see the nearby trees reflected along the side of the store. I’m not sure my photos captured that, but I noticed that unique store feature.
I personally don’t even use the drive thru very often, but I think these stores have a very sharp and attractive design. It makes it fun to visit them. Props to the store design team – I think they’re dong a lot of fun things to create an incredible variation in store design, from the larger beautiful Evenings Starbucks to these cute little drive thrus. Just in case you’re curious, about half of the U.S. company-operated Starbucks stores have a drive-thru.
Before I started this article, I was fairly confused as to which Starbucks stores fell into which category. I owe a huge thank you to Alisha Damodaran, an official Starbucks spokesperson at the headquarters, who patiently answered all of my many questions about this unique category of Starbucks stores.
Hope you enjoy this and get a chance to visit this pretty Oregon store!