A reader recently sent me a few photos of salads available at her local Starbucks. At her neighborhood store, a customer can buy a Chicken Caesar Salad Bowl or a Chicken & Bacon Cobb Salad Bowl. Both of these items are in the RTD case, near the typically-found bistro box items.
I would love to have the option of a salad! She even said that her free food rewards having been working on the salads!
I tried to research where one can find these salad bowls. The reader who emailed me the photos is located in Los Angeles County. It seems as though there might be several stores in the greater L.A. area that have them. As I researched further, I discovered that one reader had spotted them in the Olympia, Washington area, and another reader spotted these salads in a Chicago suburb. From what I know (again, from reader input), there are a total of roughly one hundred Starbucks stores in various places in the U.S. that are testing these salads.
Starbucks has indeed offered salads before, though it’s been a number of years. And typically, salads are considered a summer item. It could be that Starbucks is testing to see if they’ll sell well later in the year – however, I am making a very big leap there, and I don’t really know. If you like reading about test products and beverages, click through this category.
Have you seen or tried these salad bowls at your Starbucks? Again, the two offerings are a Chicken Caesar and Chicken & Bacon Cobb. Would you buy these?
22 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Socialize
Have to look for these salads in my area. However, again I have to say why oh why does SB have to have salads with meat, chicken or bacon in them? It is again something I do not understand and saying well you can just remove the bacon and chicken is not the right answer. I love salads and would purchase them if they thought of the vegetarian customer!
I sure would Love to see these salads here in Jersey! Salads or not, I still love my Starbucks. Thanks for the info.
The Metropolitan Park one (Seattle) has these as well. I haven’t tried them. I just tweeted you a kind of blurry picture of them in the case; didn’t want to hold up the line trying to get a better picture.
(Also I’m either a technophobe or having the worst luck trying to get a comment submitted via the mobile version of your site.)
Oh @purple1 i am so sad that they have SALAD you can’t eat, seems silly not to have 1 vegetarian option 🙁 yesh
I’d definitely go for the Chicken Caesar. The Chicken & Bacon Cobb I’d probably try.
Well they are pushing them hard. Now until March 4 you get $2 off a “handcrafted” beverage when you buy lunch. Plus there is yet another challenge – 10 stars January 20 to 29 gets you a free drink in addition to what you normally get. http://f.e.starbucks.com/i/52/163466415/130118_SaladBowl_v2.HTML?utm_source=msr&utm_medium=email&utm_content=print&utm_campaign=salad-v2
I wish my store carried salads. =(
@CalWatch – That lunch sounds like a pretty good deal! I wish we had that here. And I just got the 10 stars email. The grand prize trip to Los Angeles sounds wonderful. I want to see that movie, and right now I’d love to be somewhere a little warmer. Starbucks pick me! 😉
@Devin, LatteRose and others – Turns out there is one Seattle store that is the 100 test stores group. Unfortunately it’s a Monday through Friday, and doesn’t stay open all that late. At some point, I’m going to try to get to it! I’ll be able to eventually report back on how the salads really are.
CalWatch – Hey what is that sandwhich in the link you shared? Do you have a photo of the brown rice and veggie salad? Have you tried it? I bet purple1 would like that one! 🙂
@Purple1 – There is a veggie salad in testing. Apparently it’s in CalWatch’s area – the link he sent describes this salad:
It’s roasted veggie with brown rice, and the description says it has squash, kale and cabbage and a lemon tahini dressing:
http://starbucksmelody.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Salad-promo-image-from-link-from-CalWatch-January-2013.jpg
What area is Calwatch in? Yes, Melody that is a salad I would indeed enjoying having and I sure hope that it goes from testing into production. Thank you for sharing.
At my local SB now and SM said he has not heard of new salads and so far we are not in the test area. However, he did mention they are supposed to be rolling out new smaller breakfast items with a lot of butter in them come fall. Seems odd they would introduce high fat items even if they are small. Melody, have you heard of this possible rollout?
@purple1 – I haven’t heard of the buttery items in the fall. In all honesty, I still think that Starbucks should increasingly work on having some segmentation in food offerings – I’ve written long comments on that before.
I keep hearing gossip about Starbucks trying to expand La Boulange pastries (which wouldn’t surprise me if they’re smaller and buttery-er!) – I think there’s plans to start testing the La Boulange items soon in Seattle! (in select locations).
I don’t know if I’ve said it so many words before, what people say they want, and what they actually buy seems to be two different things often. Quality of the product is first. And then as much as people want healthy, and want coffee oriented stuff, people are drawn to sugary, buttery things – I know I am too! LOL
Melody I realized that when our SM spoke of buttery items he most likely meant from that bakery. I agree too that the brain and the stomach bring a person towards choices that could cause problems if you know what I mean. I have asked this before and really know the answer but why oh why is Seattle usually the main testing area for so many new items? A question with no real answer. Again, SB if you are reading this great blog remember there are other great locations to test items!
@purple1 – But there are tests everywhere. Everywhere. Trust, last year I was HUGELY jealous when Dallas and areas of the south tested the Peach Iced Tea, and Seattle didn’t get it. Maybe your state isn’t used often for tests, but there tons of test cities in California, and Atlanta has had several tests, as well as Denver. Chicago area has been used for testing too. And right now the Caramel Flan test is mostly in Wisconsin.
The only lunch type items my local Starbucks carry are Panini’s. I would love to try these salads.
Melody;CalWatch -When I hear about Salads,in-store Baking, La Boulange purchase , Soup tests, Sandwiches, together with Starbucks what comes to my mind is Panera.
The two big elements of Panera that have overlap with Starbucks is: Atmosphere(including internet), Coffee, and more specifically Espresso Bar (along with brewed coffee,and blended drinks AKA”Frappuccino”). But now Panera’s new locations come with drive-tru, that along with the chain currently having identical amount of locations as Starbucks had in 97(1,400).
So in Starbucks has wrote the map for what has become a serious competitor(and major competitor to Subway in Sandwiches,Soup ). Starbucks has succeed in Breakfast Sandwiches where others have failed multiple times (Wendy’s taking $17 million charge due to Failed ”Artisan” Breakfast test, Subway scaled back Breakfast hours in multiple, and Burger King is irrelevant ), and they do good deal of pastries quite well.
But once you go into the R-T-E case, too many items offer a poor overall value stance in comparison to number of other lunch options. With the Salads I feel $6.95 is a bit high (it needs to be at less a dollar less).
While the $2 off promotion CalWatch posted is an ok offer, I think $3 off,3 *** Stars with any Grande or larger beverage after 10 AM would be much better way to get people to try these Salads, and other new Food items.
FYI I am in Southern California’s Inland Empire. The Starbucks at Mountain Village in Ontario, CA had the salads, but all of the other Starbucks that I go about in eastern Los Angeles County (I have about four or five that I frequent thanks to the tumbler promo) don’t have it.
Tim, Panera has more of a restaurant kind of vibe. They serve hot food fresh and real meals like salads, soup in bread bowls (yum), and pasta. They generally have significantly more square feet than the largest Starbucks that I’ve seen (although I can’t say I’ve been to hundreds of them, the average Panera is easily two or three times the size of an “average” sit down Starbucks in my area). Panera is almost trying to take on Corner Bakery, and is more in that category, not Starbucks with their small stores.
The reason Seattle is the test market for so many things is because of it’s close proximity to a) the people who monitor the tests so they can see the results (and problems) firsthand and b) the distribution centre, so it’s easy to make sure that supplies never run out 🙂 Sucks, but makes sense, if you really want something to succeed/roll successfully if/when it rolls nationally.
There are definitely exceptions – cold beverages are definitely better tested in hotter climates. Apparently New England is the place for iced coffee. BC was one of the test markets for soy (haha – go figure :)). Since I’m on Vancouver Island, we’ve gotten to be the test market for a couple of things on the partners/business side of things, as we’re an isolated market, so it gets rid of some variables (name tags, names on cups, we experimented with a shift supervisor/barista bonus structure once also). Occasionally, they’ll do what they’re doing with these salads, and choose key stores in several different areas to see how they’ll do.
Just an update… I just had the caesar here in Santa Barbara and it was delicious. At $6.99 I won’t be eating them every day but it was actually worth every cent. One of the best salads I have ever had 🙂