SEATTLE, 2015-11-16 — /EPR Retail News/ — When Starbucks first opened the Starbucks Reserve® Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle, the intent was to create a retail experience unlike anything customers had seen from Starbucks. One year later, Starbucks is surprising its customers again with a handpicked selection of holiday gifts at the Roastery.
Jennifer Quotson, vice president of Starbucks Creative, was one of the curators for the collection.
“It was our goal when we opened the Roastery to do something different,” said Quotson. “We’ve embraced that philosophy with an unexpected collection of pieces, selected with the same care as we do for our coffee.”
Through the holidays, while supplies last, customers visiting the Roastery will have the opportunity to purchase an array of personal gifts – including technology, notions, entertaining, kitchen and home. Story cards tell the story about the people behind each product.
“Some items are tied to coffee, but we also feature things that are fun and giftable,” Quotson said. “It’s an eclectic mix, but they are all tied together through the coffeehouse experience.”
Featured makers include Hardmill, the Seattle-based company that crafted the leather wrap on the Roastery’s railings and produces the leather and waxed canvas aprons worn by the roasters and baristas. They will be selling leather coasters and coffee cup sleeves, waxed canvas aprons and totes, and a coffee brew kit in a leather bag designed exclusively for the Roastery that includes everything needed for a great cup of coffee on the go.
“It is an honor for us to have our products for sale at the Roastery, as it has become such a destination in Seattle,” said Hardmill’s Michael Barrie.
Also at the Roastery this holiday is Los Angeles-based fashion brand, The Giving Keys. Actress and singer-songwriter Caitlin Crosby first started with the idea in 2008, and the company now employs a team of people transitioning from homelessness. Each key is hand-stamped with a single word of hope and inspiration. Dream. Inspire. Courage.
“To be recognized and included by a global brand like Starbucks is a validation of what we’re trying to achieve in the fashion and social space,” said Crosby. “To share this with a company like Starbucks with a social mission means the world to us.”
For more information on this news release, contact the Starbucks Newsroom.
SOURCE: Starbucks Corporation
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