Café Dior in Chengdu. Carhartt Coffee in London. Santander Work Café in Brooklyn. Around the world, brands ranging from luxury fashion houses to workwear to banks are opening up coffee shops. The phenomenon of retailers hosting coffee shops isn’t exactly new, as anyone who’s ever been to a Starbucks inside of a Target can tell you. But the number of brand-owned and -operated coffee shops seems to be creeping up. Ralph’s Coffee, owned by Ralph Lauren, opened in Manhattan in 2014, and is now neighbored by the Blue Box Café at Tiffany & Co., a Capital One Café, and a Uniqlo Coffee around its Fifth Avenue location. (And that’s not even including the brand restaurants.) Post-Covid, there’s been a resurgence of interest in preserving or even establishing “third places,” which refers to places to spend time outside of home and work, at the same time that brands are seeking to broaden their customer bases on- and offline by investing in customer experiences. Coffee shops, it seems, are working to satisfy both sides. “It’s a great branding proposition for us,” said Nicolas Cessot, head of marketing for Uniqlo North America, which opened up its first North American coffee shop at its store on Fifth Avenue earlier this year. “It is a global flagship, so for us, it’s a global opportunity to continue to spread our brand [awareness] to customers from all over the world.” Continue reading here.—KH |