Starbucks Corp. has announced that it will begin selling alcohol in stores nationwide.
The coffee company is looking to add to its evening alcohol and light bites menu with items such as Malbec wine and bacon-wrapped dates, according to Businessweek.
"We're testing it long enough in enough markets- this is a program that works," said Chief Operating Officer Troy Alstead in a phone interview. "As we bring the evening program to stores, there's a meaningful increase in sales during that time of the day."
Starbucks has been looking to add variety to its menu and sell more non-coffee items, which include alcohol, Teavana tea and food, and juice, Businessweek reported. The company announced on Tuesday its plan to almost double its market value to $100 billion. Starbucks is improving and adding to its rewards programs and mobile applications, having announced earlier this month that it will soon find a way for customers to order items early with their smartphones.
The company first began testing alcohol sales in 2010 at a location in Seattle. The coffee shops made over 70 percent of its sales before 2 p.m., Slate reported.
The move is another step that Starbucks is taking to get more customers at different times of the day, according to MSN. The company experimented with sales again in 2012 with bakery La Boulange. At the time, CEO Howard Schultz told investors, "What La Boulange is providing us well beyond the morning pastries and the lunch is a significant platform to go after need states and day parts well into the future."
Starbucks spokesperson Alisha Damodaran talked about focusing on the needs of the customers for the company's plan to work.
"Anything that you see happening here is driven by the question: what is the customer looking for?," Damodaran said. "When we think about new product offerings in the stores, we always think about what makes customers come through our doors."
Alcohol is currently being sold in 26 Starbucks locations in the U.S., MSN reported. Damodaran said about 40 locations will sell alcohol by the end of the year, and eventually in more than 1,000 stores across the nation. Damodaran added Starbucks intends, "to remain predominantly a coffee store."
