Cookies are Big Business

The Launch Letter is bringing the 🔥 with the latest retail real estate news.

In today’s email:

• Brand to watch: Chip City Cookies secures a fresh $10M for expansion

• Lease of the Week: Starbucks signs 23,000 SF lease in the Empire State Building

• Top Reads for your weekly enjoyment.

Cookie stores have been on a tear recently, with companies like Insomnia, Crumbl, and Levain Bakery planning major expansions in 2022 and beyond. Another cookie player, NYC based Chip City, just raised $10M through Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality.

What’s the scoop?

Chip City currently has 14 locations with 10 more under construction.

🏬 Small spaces - Retail stores between 500 - 1200 SF

🤳 Instagrammable branding - Strong focus on design and social media

🍪 Cookie rotation - Weekly flavor rotation, with over 40 total flavors to date

An Enlightened Investment

Enlightened Hospitality has invested $10M in Chip City with the goal to expand to 40 locations by the end of 2023.

Danny Meyer is the founder of Enlightened Hospitality, as well as Union Square Hospitality Group, which brought us Shake Shack and a host of other successful restaurants, so he knows a thing or two about growing and scaling a successful F&B business.  He is well-known for his dedication to hospitality and community values and makes investments in companies that reflect this.

Enlightened Hospitality has also invested in companies like Joe Coffee Company (third wave coffee), Goldbelly (online specialty foods marketplace), and Salt & Straw (artisanal ice cream).

Starbucks is Coming to the Empire State Building!

While the overall Starbucks strategy has shifted its retail strategy to smaller-format drive through and pick-up locations, the company just signed a 23,000 SF lease to open a new Starbucks Reserve that will span three floors of the Empire State Building in New York City.

“Third Place”

Starbucks is well known for their “third place” strategy, creating a place for people to chill outside of their work and home.

Current Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson says, “We think of the third place as a mindset — a feeling of comfort that uplifts customers everywhere, and in every way, they experience Starbucks” - marketing jargon for ‘the place where we get customers addicted to a daily drip of caffeine’.

Contradiction?

Although Starbucks recently announced that they plan to add 2,000 new stores in the U.S. by 2025, focused on smaller format cafes, pick-up, drive-thru and delivery, Starbucks still seems committed to the Third Place strategy, and this new destination Starbucks at the Empire State Building reflects this.

What's in a 23,000 SF coffee shop?

The new Starbucks will join a portfolio of exclusive Reserve Roastery cafes, located in Milan, Shanghai, Chicago, Tokyo, and Seattle. In addition to the usual drinks menu, the Reserve Roastery will feature coffee workshops, special signature beverages, a full food menu, coffee cocktails, and certainly plenty of Starbucks merch.

Weekly Rundown

Lululemon, one of the most popular brand for teen girls, has no teen strategy 

Warby Parker, the digitally native eyewear brand, is doubling down on its retail strategy, with plans to launch hundreds of new stores over the next few years.

Northface plans for 300 new stores over the next five years, to reach customers that want to engage with their brand physically, as well as digitally.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading! If you know someone that would find this valuable, click here to share!