UW Food Services (UWFS) announced this week that a Starbucks will open on campus in the new Science Teaching Complex. Students took to social media, specifically the UW subreddit, to discuss the announcement.
According to the UWFS press release, the franchise will offer a full menu of food and beverage items. It is the ninth Starbucks in the City of Waterloo.
“We go to Tim Hortons a lot and probably waste a lot of money there. If I were to choose between the two, I’d probably go to Starbucks,” said Colleen Toth, a second-year health studies student, speaking for herself and classmate Elsa Ludyka. “I don’t think I’d go there everyday…maybe a fancy drink once and a while,” Toth said when asked about the concern of Starbucks prices.
The two said they are mostly excited about the prospect of iced coffee, which campus Tim Hortons do not currently offer.
“I’m from a small town, so I don’t really get to go there often,” Toth said.
A Starbucks was proposed for EV3 during its construction in 2011 but the plan was squashed due to negative feedback from environment students. Concerns at the time were over environmental impact and Starbucks’ reputation for corporate responsibility. During the controversy the environment students society polled their faculty and found students evenly split on the issue.
Currently, the closest Starbucks to campus is at King and University, 2.3 km from the SLC; the location at Columbia and Fischer-Hallman is a close second at 2.7 km away.
UWFS director Lee Elkas hinted at the possibility of a Starbucks to “hit that niche market” last fall when the express Tim Horton’s opened in DC.
“Our student population has been asking for a Starbucks for a long time,” Elkas said in a press release.
Construction of the Science Teaching Complex is expected to finish April 2015.
