When Starbucks, the retail coffee giant announced plans for a new 2,000-square-foot store at 2704 Harlem Ave. in Riverside, loyal customers of the Sara Lee Bakery Outlet figured their coffeecake-buying days there were numbered.
However, with Starbucks facing some difficult financial times, it looks like Starbucks won’t be coming to Riverside any time soon.
A spokesperson for the company told the Landmark on Monday that the store was “on hold.” Pressed for details on what exactly that meant, the spokesperson said she could provide none.
At the beginning of 2008, Starbucks announced that it was closing some 100 underperforming stores in the United States and that it would be scaling back the number of new stores opening this year.
On March 20, the company got some more unwelcome news when a California judge ruled the coffee giant had to pay some 120,000 baristas over $86 million-plus interest-for tips the baristas shared with supervisors. The class-action suit contended that California law prohibited supervisors from sharing tips made by baristas.
Starbucks is appealing the ruling, contending that the tip “pool” gave supervisors a way to compensate baristas for outstanding customer service.
Starbucks went through a lengthy approval process in 2007 to get a new store OK’d in Riverside. The Riverside village board last October granted four zoning variations that would have allowed the Sara Lee Outlet to be demolished and a new Starbucks with a drive-thru to be built on the site, which is just north of Longcommon Road.
After obtaining the variances, Starbucks representative Michael Achim announced that the company planned for a mid-2008 opening.
However, as of March 20, Starbucks had no lease with the owner of the property, according to the Starbucks spokesperson.