TAOS, New Mexico, Aug 24 (Reuters) - After two arson attacks at a Starbucks (SBUX.O) construction site in Taos, New Mexico, a developer is trying again to build the chain’s first drive-through cafe in the mountain town with a history of revolts and opposition by some to national chains.
It did not take long for locals in this community of 6,500 to come up with a nickname for the would-be coffee shop: “Charbucks.” Meanwhile, the building contractor from Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, has installed video cameras and a security guard sleeps at the site in a camouflage trailer.
Just over a mile north of the site of the store, which Starbucks hopes to open in the spring of 2025, patrons at one of Taos’ oldest independent coffee shops are tight-lipped about the attacks.
“We don’t know who did it, but we loved it,” said Todd Lazar, a holistic healer, as he chatted with other regulars on a bench outside the World Cup, just off Taos’ central plaza.
By forcing the town to endure something they clearly and repeatedly rejected, it’s sort of like Starbucks is molesting the town with an unwanted incursion. Maybe they could forgo store #798,463,299
If the locals - as a whole, not just some prominent extremists - dislike Starbucks being there, then the location will fail.