By Andrew de Souza

Prince Albert Starbucks safe for now

Oct 31, 2010 | 3:48 PM

Four Safeway stores in Western Canada are slated to change their coffee providers to Tim Hortons from Starbucks—but the Prince Albert location isn’t one of them.
The company recently announced they’d be making the changes. They cited several reasons for the change including the need to stay competitive and offer different services to its customers.
Company spokeswoman, Betty Kelsey, said the company was changing two stores in Edmonton and two in Calgary by December.
She said the decision was made because those particular locations either did not offer any coffee service or they were located close to already existing Starbucks locations.
“We wanted to really look where there were multiple coffee offerings, multiple Starbucks offerings, in the same location,” said Kelsey.
She added that overall, the company would maintain the status quo of a small Starbucks shop in their stores, but said the success of the Albert locations could change the company’s plans.
“We’re really looking at this as a new business venture and an opportunity to look at the Tim Hortons business,” said Kelsey. “Certainly we’ll be watching very closely to the success of the four locations.”
adesouza@panow.om