Starbucks Continues Expansion In Atlantic Canada
MONCTON – With new Starbucks locations opening in smaller communities like Oromocto and Miramichi, the chain is in the process of expanding to new horizons in New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada – but is stingy with details of what that will entail.
Leanna Rizzi, a communications and public affairs manager for Starbucks Canada, said in an email to Huddle that Starbucks sees a great deal of potential for expansion in urban, suburban, and remote communities.
Rizzi didn’t specify where Starbucks is looking next in N.B. or Atlantic Canada, but said the coffee giant “has a role to play in all communities and the company sees so much opportunity for growth in Atlantic Canada.”
The company’s Miramichi location, which is located at 2422 King George Highway, will open on December 27. It’s one of many rural Atlantic Canadian locations the chain is considering or opening in.
The location, equipped with a drive-thru and café-style seating, is part of a departure from the traditional presence the chain has seen in larger city centers that Atlantic Canada.
Starbucks currently has 946 company-operated locations and 471 licensed stores across Canada. The chain does not franchise.
According to the chain’s store-locator feature on its website, when the Miramichi location opens, there will be 16 Starbucks stores in New Brunswick.
The Oromocto location, which opened in February 2022, serves in a part of the town near the fifth Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown – and aims to be a major employer of military spouses living in the community.
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Rizzi did not respond to questions from Huddle about Starbucks’ growing market share in rural Atlantic Canada – an area traditionally dominated by rival coffee giant Tim Hortons.
Starbucks’ Atlantic Canadian growth spurt is part of a five-year strategy it implemented before the pandemic to transform its store portfolio and adjust to customer needs.
“This work included exploring new stores formats and designs, like our first mobile order pickup store which we opened in early 2020,” Rizzi said.
This transformation included efforts by the chain to pivot to offering more drive-thru delivery and mobile-ordering and takeout options for customers several months into the pandemic, when pandemic restrictions forced it to close and cut services to the aforementioned options.
The plan also included the closure of one of Starbucks’ long-time haunts in downtown Moncton, with the permanent shuttering of its 721 Main Street location in October, 2020.
RELATED: Starbucks Closing Downtown Moncton Location
Rizzi said how a Starbucks fits into a community determines the size and physical location of each store – and whether it will be a pick-up store, drive-thru only, or full café with drive-thru.
“In a larger [city] like Fredericton, where we have more than one location, we will look at different formats of stores to serve different needs,” Rizzi said.
“One location may have the drive-thru and full seating, another may have less seating and a longer counter to serve more mobile ordering.”
Starbucks’ expansion is carrying on as the coffee chain faces union pressure from employees on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.
According to CBC reporting, Starbucks stores in Canada are beginning to push for unionization, with a Victoria, B.C. Starbucks unionizing in 2020 with the United Steelworkers.
While there are six unionized locations in Western Canada, the Victoria store is the only one with a collective agreement in place.
The Associated Press reported that in the U.S., more than 1,000 baristas walked out as part of the longest strike to date in a unionization campaign spearheaded by advocacy group Starbucks Workers United. Last week’s walkout was the second major strike by Starbucks employees this year.
More than 264 company-run American Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since 2021.
Huddle asked about the impacts of those unionization efforts on the chain’s Atlantic expansion, but Rizzi did not answer those questions.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].