Shop Talk

Is Starbucks — the company that helps millions of people get moving with a morning caffeine fix — brewing up a plan to sell beer and wine for the afternoon and evening unwind?

“I’m being asked more often than any other time for our managers to keep our stores open later. We’re examining that,” Chief Executive Howard Schultz told Reuters in a recent interview.

So that means Starbucks is going to expand its selection of “adult” beverages to include cold beer and select wines?

“We’ve got a test in one store. I wouldn’t jump to a conclusion on that, we’ll just have to see,” said Schultz, who plans to test beer and wine at one Seattle Starbucks when renovations at that cafe are finished this autumn.

The Seattle chain has tried limited beer and wine sales before and has offered such items at two upscale concept stores in Seattle’s Capitol Hill section for about a year.

Do you think the time has come for beer and wine at Starbucks?