Why did Starbucks' evening alcohol programme fail between 2010-2017?

Starbucks After Dark: The Experiment That Didn't Stick

For a brief but ambitious stretch, you could walk into a Starbucks, order a glass of Chardonnay, and nibble on a charcuterie board. It sounds strange now, and it turns out customers thought so too.

What Was the Starbucks Evenings Programme?

Launched in 2010 in Seattle, the Starbucks Evenings initiative was designed to transform stores into something resembling a casual wine bar after 4pm. The menu expanded to include beer, wine, and small plates — think truffle mac and cheese, bacon-wrapped dates, and artisan cheese pairings. By 2015, the programme had rolled out to around 400 locations across the United States.

The logic seemed sound on paper. Coffee shops see a natural dip in foot traffic once the afternoon rush dies down. Why not fill those quiet evening hours with a different kind of customer? Starbucks was essentially looking at empty seats and seeing lost revenue.

The Fatal Misread of the Brand

The problem was a fundamental misunderstanding of why people go to Starbucks in the first place. Customers visit for a reliable, comforting coffee experience — a morning ritual, a midday pick-me-up, a familiar routine. The brand had spent decades building powerful associations around coffee, warmth, and productivity. Adding Pinot Grigio to that mix created cognitive dissonance rather than excitement.

People looking for a drink in the evening are not thinking about Starbucks. They head to a bar, a restaurant, or a pub. Starbucks had no natural claim to that occasion, and simply being open and serving alcohol was not enough to change long-established consumer habits.

Cannibalism, Not Growth

Rather than bringing in a new wave of evening customers, the programme largely ended up cannibalising existing sales. Regulars who might have popped in for a late latte were instead confronted with a slightly awkward hybrid environment — one that felt neither fully like a coffee shop nor a proper bar. Staff required additional training to handle alcohol service, and the operational complexity added cost without delivering meaningful new revenue.

There were also complaints from some loyal customers who felt the alcohol offering changed the atmosphere they had come to love — the sense of a calm, neutral, family-friendly space.

The Quiet Exit

By early 2017, Starbucks quietly pulled the plug on the Evenings programme entirely. The company offered little fanfare in either its launch or its closure. CEO Howard Schultz had championed the idea, but even he could not reshape how millions of customers emotionally positioned the brand.

The lesson stuck: brand identity is not just a logo or a tagline — it is the expectation a customer carries through the door. Starbucks taught the business world that even a giant with enormous resources cannot simply bolt a new occasion onto a deeply embedded consumer habit. You can serve alcohol at a coffee shop. You just cannot make people want to drink it there.