Starbucks wants a bigger bite of lunch
Starbucks rules the coffee business. Now, it also wants to be known for its sushi burrito.
Having satisfied customers’ morning caffeine cravings, the Seattle-based company has set its sights on lunch.
“We do see lunch as the biggest opportunity,” said Sara Trilling, Starbucks’ senior vice-president of food category and innovation.
To take advantage of it, Starbucks has a new, expanded menu called Mercato — Italian for “market” — that includes avocado salads, herbed chicken and figspread sandwiches. In yet another play for Starbuck’s core yuppie following, there’s even a “farmers’ market protein box,” which has Genoa salami, cheddar cheese, snap peas, sliced apples, crackers and almonds.
The play for lunch launched in April at more than 100 locations in the Chicago area and expanded to another 200 of its stores around Seattle last month.
Trilling said Starbucks plans to double its food business by 2021.
That’s not exactly meteoric growth, but at least, it gives Starbucks a fighting chance after the morning coffee rush. Half of Starbucks customers in the United States come in before 11 a.m. The challenge is getting them to try a sushi burrito — a chicken-andrice concoction wrapped in a seaweed leaf that’s available in Chicago — or a seared steak and cheddar sandwich.
“From a growth perspective, you’ve got to expand the number of transactions,” said David Henkes, senior principal for Technomics, a Chicago-based food industry consulting firm. “They’re extremely busy during the breakfast (hours), lines out the door. Come 11 a.m., they’re empty.”
Starbucks does not have the extensive kitchens to deliver fresh hot food quickly to customers. Instead, food is prepared at central hubs and then trucked to stores.