Third West Gray Starbucks Disrupts Time-Space Continuum

Strictly speaking, Starbucks number 3 at the corner of West Gray and Shepherd is the new “Barnes and Noble Cafe” inside the just-opened bookstore. But we all know who calls the shots there.

And now we know: The universe is without end.

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Videos: Jason Witmer, Houston Chronicle; Comedy Central

7 Comment

  • It really is hard to fathom what is happening there. The well-tanned, bleached toothed woman who is profiling the “others” is the icing on the cake. Thankfully, Lewis Black can put it into perspective. Someone contact him about the third location while I grab a cup of coffee.

  • Well, the Barnes and Nobel Starbucks is not a real Starbucks. Starbucks franchises out their stores that are incorporated into other retail establishments.

    I can see that Starbucks potentially closing the freestanding one out in front!

  • kijb434, why would they close that one? It is the only one with a drive-through. Oddly, each one of the locations has a benefit due to traffic patterns at the intersection. My previous comment was for humor only and you missed it.

  • Brad’s right…It’s one of those intersections where traffic backs up at the light within an instant, making it impossible to turn from one side of the street into another (kind of like Montrose and Westheimer). Not saying I like the idea of 3 Starbuck’s on one corner, but it’s easy to see how the three could succeed. Especially considering that the B&N starbuck’s is not likely to take much business away from the other two.

  • Well, Starbucks has been on a roll closing down places in the past couple of years and redundancy in some areas was a trigger to close besides just performance.

    Actually, the existing two places are busy anyway yall said. A third one might not cannibalize the existing two if the BnN customers keep it busy.

    What’s silly, and it may be in Starbucks agreement with BnN, is that Starbucks would let them add another. I guess there wasn’t a clause about franchise location encroaching on a corporately owned one?

  • That corner needs to add a CVS Pharmacy and sell all of the douches that appeared in that report.

  • Very unlikely that any of the 3 will close anytime soon. The 2 standalones are highly profitable and sit at the entrance to the richest neighborhood in the city. The 3rd is owned by the bookstore and offered more as a service to customers of the bookstore. Barnes and Noble probably doesn’t care if it’s not super-profitable.