Exclusive: At Starbucks, the future is smaller

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — Starbucks is on a mission to recapture its roots as a place to sit down for a cup of coffee. But it doesn’t think it needs a big footprint to deliver on that promise.

A new café prototype that opened last month in San Antonio has all the features of a typical Starbucks, like plush seating, bakery treats displayed in a glass case as well as an espresso bar for baristas to make drinks. However, it’s a fraction of the size of a usual location.

The new design helps Starbucks push into areas where real estate is expensive, particularly in major cities. Starbucks reworked the counter with a new “folded bar” configuration to fit into narrower spaces rather than running the entirety of a café.

But the chain said the new format still has seating for people to socialize and connect, which has become a hallmark of its reinvigoration plan to recapture the “third place” energy that’s a priority for CEO Brian Niccol.

“These particular new formats are really stretching us to be more adaptable to different types of location, different shapes and different sizes, but they still hold all of the aspects of the (coffee house) experience,” said Dawn Clark, the company’s senior vice president of global concepts and design.

Prior to Niccol’s arrival in 2024, Starbucks largely tailored its locations to customers picking up orders off its mobile app. It pulled out 30,000 comfortable seats, installed hard wooden stools and blocked electrical outlets, making cafes a less desirable place to hang out.

Sales suffered as a result, as well as for a variety of other reasons, including higher prices, longer waits for pickup orders and lackluster food options.

In 2025, as part of a $1 billion restructuring effort, the chain announced a massive renovation plan that brought back cozy seating, more plugs and free refills to encourage customers to stick around. So far, 1,500 existing locations have been redesigned in North America, with Starbucks planning to accelerate the face lifts.

A smaller-sized prototype could fit into its growth plans.

Smaller size

Starbucks is applying aspects of its broader redesign project to this smaller prototype. It doesn’t want repeat the mistakes of the ill-fated pick-up only stores that were created for small spaces.

Niccol shuttered them in July 2025, saying the locations were “overly transactional.” The sterile design didn’t have seats and encouraged people to order strictly via its mobile app.

Clark used that as a case study for this design so as to not limit how people order their drinks. About 30% of customers use mobile ordering, the company says.

“Customers have variable needs and they would like to be able to choose different ways of interacting with us, depending on what their day is like,” she told CNN, adding that the new locations let people order in person, for delivery, on the app and even at a drive-thru.

So far, six locations of the smaller prototype are open, including in San Antonio and Manhattan. The company declined to reveal the square footage of the new design.

Starbucks’ success

Starbucks has had a mixed success in attracting people back to the chain. The company has closed hundreds of locations over the past two years across North America.

However, same-store US sales turned positive in the most recent quarter, and it has plans to open about 5,000 new locations in the coming years.

Clark said they’ve learned from the 1,000 locations they’ve remolded so far, and plan to use the information from both customers and employees in this new, smaller design.

“It’s very symbiotic and we’re getting a lot of feedback that the kind of reenergizing of the coffee house is really positive for both sides.”

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