Locke Street

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

Does anyone know how common it is for a Starbucks to be corporately owned??

Extremely common.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

I wondered that when I was trying to walk by through the mobs....would the big wigs who own this location (apparently it's corporately owned, not franchised) spread the word among their corporate friends and perhaps help downtown Hamilton lure some of them (Indigo, Loblaws etc...)?

Sorry, another stretch.

The fact that the Hamilton location is corporately owned does not mean that it is anything more than a blip on the Starbucks Canada radar... the outlets are pretty well all corporately owned. The only real contact with head office is likely a field agent who checks up on the location.

The president of Starbucks Canada probably doesn't run in the same circle as most of these people, and I can't imagine that he/she would bring up the Hamilton location during cocktail hour. It's not as if he/she is about to say "Galen, our downtown Hamilton location has been a smashing success. You should throw a supermarket in there."

Anyway, Loblaws is a bad example because it already has a huge presence in Hamilton with all of the Fortinos stores. It is not as if the company has never heard of the town.

[RePinion]

From what I know, Starbucks stores are almost exclusively corporately owned. I've never heard of any franchises and a quick visit to their site confirms that Starbucks is not in the franchise business.

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by BCTed

Sorry, another stretch.

The fact that the Hamilton location is corporately owned does not mean that it is anything more than a blip on the Starbucks Canada radar... the outlets are pretty well all corporately owned. The only real contact with head office is likely a field agent who checks up on the location.

The president of Starbucks Canada probably doesn't run in the same circle as most of these people, and I can't imagine that he/she would bring up the Hamilton location during cocktail hour. It's not as if he/she is about to say "Galen, our downtown Hamilton location has been a smashing success. You should throw a supermarket in there."

Anyway, Loblaws is a bad example because it already has a huge presence in Hamilton with all of the Fortinos stores. It is not as if the company has never heard of the town.

either you're wasting our time again, or you've been holding out on us all this time if you have insider information about the behind-the-scenes goings on at these multinationals.

I personally have no clue (I assume Fastcars will be able to help me out here) what goes on, but one only needs to look at what happened to Queen West in TO several years back once Starbucks and a couple of other chains located on the once-trendy street. A few years later it was basically like an outdoor version of the Toronto Eaton Centre.
Pure coincidence??

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

I'm actually glad that we don't have ample room downtown to expand our current Shoppers into the mega-box type.

Again, I'm not yet familiar with the area, so I don't know the current size or layout of the downtown one. But the size and set-up like Shoppers has at King & Peter in Toronto is great for urban settings.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by BCTed

Anyway, Loblaws is a bad example because it already has a huge presence in Hamilton with all of the Fortinos stores. It is not as if the company has never heard of the town.

I think Hamilton needs some smaller, higher quality food retailers before another large chain style retailer. That would be the next step after a Starbucks, Lululemon arrival.

[SteelTown]

I think it's now time for the City to start drawing up plans for new streetscape for Locke Street from Aberdeen to Main. Perhaps the same idea with James St North for Locke, wide sidewalks, bike racks, new street lights (hate the cement street lights) with benches and trees. The sidewalks on Locke are kinda getting rough with many cracks and rust from the old parking meters that used to be up.

[DC83]

^^ The Locke Street BIA does a good job at dressing up the street, imo anyway.
Like during Christmas time, they give each store a small christmas tree that they light up in infront of their shops. It looks GREAT!

There is definately a need for streetscaping on a LOT of streets downtown, esp John Street! They still need to finish the northern part of Hughson too.

[raisethehammer]

yes, streetscaping Locke would be nice, but first I'd like to see them do Wilson/York by the market, John, James South and James North from LIUNA Station to the water. Locke seems to be doing just fine as is...haha.

On a good note, Locke St Bakery was jammed to the rafters today as usual.
They were handing out free drinks covered in whipped cream, on the street in front of Starbucks. It was kind of funny...the guy was asking everyone if they wanted one, but noticed my cup from up the street and didn't say a word.
Being good neighbours I guess. lol.

[SteelTown]

The best streetscape that I found in Hamiltonis Hughson St from Main to King St South. They spiced it up with colour instead of typical boring grey cement colour.

[raisethehammer]

yup, it's very nice.
Also, Hess Village has an awesome streetscape along with King William. I'm a sucker for urban cobblestone!

[matt602]

Apparently we're forgetting about King William? Probably the nicest cobblestone street in the city aside from Hess.

[the dude]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

Amuse Bouche was the only place mostly empty.

it's no wonder. have you looked at their menu? the prices are mental, even for trendy kirkendall.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

either you're wasting our time again, or you've been holding out on us all this time if you have insider information about the behind-the-scenes goings on at these multinationals.

I personally have no clue (I assume Fastcars will be able to help me out here) what goes on, but one only needs to look at what happened to Queen West in TO several years back once Starbucks and a couple of other chains located on the once-trendy street. A few years later it was basically like an outdoor version of the Toronto Eaton Centre.
Pure coincidence??

I don't see how what I said has to fall into one of the two buckets you mentioned.

As for the Queen Street thing, I don't know the details of what you are talking about, but if it exists, then I imagine that it is more a form of competitive game theory in action than it is some kind of collusion.

[raisethehammer]

man, anyone on Locke St today?? it was like the attack of the starbuckian suburanites. holy smokes. don't get me wrong...i'm sure the folks at the Green Monkey are loving life....each time I walked by there were half a dozen people in there milling around with these giant starbucks cups.
Speaking of which, what the heck do they serve in these foot and a half tall cups??? You can see the Starbucks people from 8 blocks away because of these huge, tall white things they are carrying.
Gee, I can't figure out why America is so fat! haha.

At any rate...it was amazing to see how many people obviously came to Locke today because they knew starbucks had opened. folks were oohing and aahing in the shop windows and coming in and out of shops saying stuff like "I had no clue there were so many neat stores here" and "what a great neighbourhood" etc.....
Yep, things have changed in Hamilton while you've all been cooconed inside Walmart the past decade. haha.
Welcome back to the city....sad that it took 2-foot tall cups of poorly-tasting, overpriced coffee to bring you back....but regardless, welcome back.

[SteelTown]

It's probably the venti java chip frappuccino lol

[RePinion]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

Welcome back to the city....sad that it took 2-foot tall cups of poorly-tasting, overpriced coffee to bring you back....but regardless, welcome back.

Yep. This is precisely the reaction I hoped for and expected. As I said, starbucks may be shite, but it's all about instilling confidence ...

This may be a bigger step for the downtown's revitalization than we realize.

[thistleclub]

Looks like Starbucks is intent on improving its brew: the company bought the company that makes Clover machines and intends to make it the chain's standard equipment.

[raisethehammer]

if you consider going from one push-button espresso machine to another to be an 'improvement' more power to you.
I'll stick with the places that actually make the espresso and steam the milk after I place my order.

[thistleclub]

Your disinterest in Starbucks coffee is clear. I was reading too much into their intentions. Haven't tasted the output and was unwise to prejudge.