Half-caff follow-up

If you read my Inland Empire blog Empoprise-IE, you probably saw this April 17 post about the closure of a Rancho Cucamonga, California Starbucks that happens to be near an indie coffee competitor. As I noted in the post, however, there was probably another reason for the closure:

Is it possible that the 8880 Starbucks closed because enough people chose to get their coffee at a place across the street?

Actually, in this case there's another explanation - because the aforementioned Albertson's has its own Starbucks. Unless you live in Seattle, there's little need to have two Starbucks separated by a one-minute walk.

But I wouldn't be surprised if there are some "slaying the corporate beast" parties at Coffee Klatch.

Well, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin has also focused on the two-Starbucks corner, with its article "Starbucks will go half-caff on RC corner." Excerpt:

IF YOU heard the news that the Starbucks at Foothill and Vineyard in Rancho Cucamonga is slated to close, your first question could well have been: "Which one?"

That's because the northwest corner of that intersection gained notoriety a few years back for having not one but two Starbucks.

And I should also mention the close of the article:

You know Starbucks is retrenching when they want only one location per corner.