Starbucks Holiday Launch

I'll spare you all the advertising schpeal... but I do have to show off some of the cool Starbucks holiday merchandise that I got to set up last night! Yes, as part of my final step in completing my Advanced Store Training, I needed to complete a "set." A set is when Starbucks starts new drinks, signs, merchandise, etc. The biggest one is their holiday one, which includes tons of signs, new pastries, all new cups and coffees, loads of decorations, and a zillion other things that you have to get set up and put out before the store opens the day of the launch.

Nicole, my boss, put me in charge of this launch, and it was a doozy. I spent 5 hours yesterday sorting through boxes of tumblers, coffee gift sets, and holiday bears. There were two chalkboard signs to re-do (which usually take me forever to design because of my perfectionist streak attention to detail), snowflake clings to hang, and holiday mugs, tumblers, gift cards, and coffee sets to display. Thankfully, Nicole helped a bit so we could get done on time. And I do have to say - whoa. The store looks freakin' awesome now. All festive and holiday-fied. Because of Starbucks' proprietary rules, I couldn't take any photos, so you'll all have to come visit me to see how beautiful it turned out!

In the meantime, here's a few of the new holiday items that caught my eye...The Tazo Tea sampler is a perfect example of where the packaging is really what sold me - the wooden bamboo box that holds a selection of teas would be awesome on your kitchen counter, or could even pull double duty as storage for office supplies or bathroom goodies.


Good luck actually finding one of these cold to-go cups in a store... we sold all 15 of ours before noon today... (hint: you can order them from Starbucks online, or if you get really desperate, they're bound to start showing up on Ebay pretty soon.)I love the red cup design this year - the ornaments, the two-tone pine tree branches, and the overall theme of "wishing" is just smile-inducing.