Influx

Coffee houses are here to stay and although Starbucks is the pre-eminent brand and design archetype, others are attempting to break it.

Juan Valdez, the Columbian coffee group is taking the anti-Starbucks route. The Manhattan flagship store, feels light, rather than dark, and cutting edge, instead of Pottery Barn mainstream. Not for them, the traditional trappings of old-school “third place” comfort, instead the architecture and design borrows more from contemporary restaurant and fashion store design, rather than college campus or the C18th century coffee house.

website for the store’s designers

Valdez hopes to establish around 300 stores worldwide, while this can’t be considered a serious threat to Starbucks, Valdez is using retail as a core communication tool, to better connect their coffee to consumers.

npr story on valdez’s expansion plans

For Valdez, store design plays a key role in not only building brand differentiation, but also in helping to educate consumers on the story of Columbia’s quality coffee. This would be hard to achieve, if Valdez relied on the grocery chains and Starbucks to do it for them.