Starbucks wants to sell beer, wine in Naperville

Naperville liquor commission member Marc Blackman admitted he's curious about why Starbucks wants to sell beer and wine.

"Why is Starbucks doing this? What do you hope it becomes?" he asked about the Starbucks Evenings program that has the company petitioning Naperville for a license to sell alcoholic drinks along with its usual offerings of the caffeinated variety.

It comes down to capturing a very specific market, Starbucks officials said, a market they've been catering to in Schaumburg since one of the first Starbucks Evenings programs in the suburbs launched in 2012.

Those who buy beer or wine at Starbucks might be stopping by in the afternoon or evening for a book club, an informal meeting or a catch-up session with a friend, said Kasia Stoops, a district manager, and Gretchen Chesley, an attorney with Webster Powell, who both spoke on behalf of Starbucks.

"It's about garnering a specific demographic, people who don't want to be in a bar type of environment who might want to have a glass of wine," Chesley said.

Starbucks Evenings customers can order one of about a dozen craft beers or a dozen wines from $7 to $15 each by striding up to the same counter where the coffee chain's regulars get their daily fix.

Chesley said all employees at shops that offer beer and wine are 21 or older and they all go through alcoholic beverage server training. Each alcohol customer has to prove her or his age with an identification card and customers can order only one drink at a time.

Selling beer and wine doesn't change the fact Starbucks is primarily a coffee shop, Stoops said. Beer and wine sales only amount to 1 percent or 2 percent of total sales at roughly 40 shops across the nation that offer alcoholic drinks, and Chesley said the company isn't looking to grow that percentage.

To launch Starbucks Evenings in Naperville, the company would need the city to create a new type of liquor license. That's because Starbucks coffee shops lack full kitchens and full menus, which are required for the relevant liquor licenses the city offers, city prosecutor Kavita Athanikar said.

Starbucks wants to first start selling beer in wine in Naperville at the location on Naper Boulevard in the Fox Run Square shopping center between Hobson Road and 75th Street. The company then could expand alcohol sales to be available at six of its 12 Naperville shops.

Liquor commissioners who reviewed the request Thursday posed many questions but offered no real opinions on whether they think allowing Starbucks to sell beer and wine is a good idea.

Commissioners wondered how the idea would affect other businesses and if more of the city's 30 coffee shops would want to sell alcohol if Starbucks was allowed to. Athanikar said two businesses that sell coffee - Le Chocolat du Bouchard and Jo & Doh Donuts - already have asked for liquor licenses but have been denied.

Commissioners also directed city staff members to find out if police in other towns where Starbucks sells alcohol, including Schaumburg, Burr Ridge, Glenview, Evanston and Winnetka, have responded to any problems related to the liquor sales.

"It does sound like we need additional information," Mayor and Liquor Commissioner Steve Chirico said.

A proposed liquor license the could govern the sale of alcohol at Starbucks will be brought to the liquor commission at a later meeting.