After the announcement that Starbucks will be closing up to 300 locations in Canada by the end of the month, Canadian owned franchise, Good Earth Coffeehouse, revealed they plan to capitalize on the available storefronts. Starbucks will not be releasing a full list of stores to set to close but says the widespread closure is in response to a change in customer behaviour and preferences.
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Good Earth’s Game Plan
Founded in 1991, the Good Earth franchise have 45 locations across Canada with the majority in their home base, Calgary. Other locations include Victoria, BC, Montreal, QC and throughout Saskatchewan. Good Earth plans to move into many of these empty stores that Starbucks has left behind, expanding their business further across Canada. Most of the current locations are in British Columbia and Alberta. First on the list of takeovers are locations in Ontario, specifically Toronto and the GTA. Founder and CEO of Good Earth Cafes Ltd. Michael Going said the focus will be on sites with proven performance, in-place infrastructure, and opportunity for future growth.
“Our big push right now is into the GTA, we’re definitely looking to take a number of locations with the Toronto region and probably down into southwestern Ontario as well,” Going confirmed to Dished. “We don’t have a number, we’re just looking at the real estate. We’re looking at not taking over some of their poorer [performing] locations; we’re looking at ones that have strong traffic and sales for them.”
Profiting from Starbuck’ Loss?
Good Earth is not the only coffee franchise profiting from Starbucks’ loss. Second Cup has created geo-targeted ads for those who pass by one of Toronto’s seven closed Starbucks locations. The ad offers Starbucks’ caffeine-deficient customers a free Second Cup Vanilla Bean Latte when they open Instagram or Facebook as they pass by the shuttered storefront.
