Why is one of the first Starbucks in Texas closing after 30 years?

The Starbucks in Highland Park Village is one of the first locations in Texas, but now it is leaving its spot after 30 years of service.

“Starbucks is moving in a different direction,” Dallas Observer’s food editor Lauren Drewes Daniels said. “The company as a whole is going towards more, like output and throughput, like they want to move more people through the doors faster to drive through.”

And that makes sense since 54% of U.S.-based coffee consumers prefer drive-thru coffee due to the ease and convenience. That’s the results of the research done in 2023 from Allegra World Coffee Portal.

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“People's… time sensitivities have changed,” UT Marketing Professor Raji Srinivasan said. “I think given the high price of the retail locations, high labor costs, and the related unionization challenges… I think it makes sense from a customer perspective, company perspective, to increase sales through to-go and mobile orders rather than seating customers.”

Society may be moving in a different direction, but this Starbucks location will always be considered one of the first areas to help pioneer a new coffeehouse culture for 30 years since its grand opening.

“I remember… the first time people really drank Starbucks,” Daniels said. “We’re like, ‘this tastes like burnt coffee.’ Now we're all acclimated to it, and it's the standard of what coffee should taste like.”