Manager Christopher Davies had planned to open the new Bradford West Starbucks at 1 p.m. on Thursday – an opening that was promoted all over Facebook.
Unfortunately, there were a few “bumps and hiccups.” Inspections and last-minute work on the brand-new parking lot meant a delay in the opening – so “we just started bringing stuff to our schools,” said Davies.
Wherever he and staff had connections or customers – at Bradford District High School, Pet Valu, TD Canada Trust, Chris Hadfield Public School – the Starbucks team put together a box of coffee or trays of specialty drinks, and dropped them off.
“We went with a personal connection,” Davies said, sending a grande vanilla latté to Chris Hadfield Public School and chai tea lattés to Fieldcrest Elementary School, based on customers’ tastes. “We were really able to make it a personal thing.”
He noted that Starbucks doesn’t normally deliver, “but as a company, we do a lot of ‘surprise and delight.'"
The store at 496 Holland St. W. was able to open its doors on Friday – a ‘soft’ opening. The official opening, with ribbon cutting and hoopla, is scheduled for May 22, but Davis was there on the 10th to personally welcome customers, building the business “one cup, one person, one neighbourhood at a time.”
The Bradford West Starbucks brings the company’s signature coffee and specialty drinks closer to Highway 400 and to Bradford’s two high schools. Davies has already seen walk-in traffic, as students head over on their lunch break.
“This has been a long time coming,” he said. “People have wanted it… Everyone’s super-excited about the store on this side.”
And the new Starbucks is a bit of a dream job for Davies. A Bradford West Gwillimbury resident for the past 11 years, he is now only minutes away from work.
“I got a three-minute commute,” he said – with coffee when he arrives.
