By Andrew Hay
TAOS, New Mexico (Reuters) – After two arson attacks at a Starbucks (NASDAQ:) coffee shop construction site in Taos, New Mexico, a developer is trying again to build the chain’s first drive-through store in the mountain town that has seen a history of rebellions and opposition from some to nationwide chains.
It didn’t take long for residents of this community of 6,500 to come up with a nickname for the future coffee shop: “Charbucks.” Meanwhile, a construction contractor from Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, has installed video cameras, and a security guard sleeps on site in a camouflage trailer.
Less than a mile north of the store that Starbucks hopes to open in spring 2025, customers at one of Taos’ oldest independent coffee shops are not saying much about the attacks.
“We don’t know who did it, but we liked it,” said Todd Lazar, a holistic healer, as he chatted with other regulars at a bench outside the World Cup stadium just off Taos’ central plaza.
Their conversation echoes criticism that Starbucks has faced when it entered Europe and Asia, that the American coffee chain is at odds with local culture and will drain money from communities. Starbucks operates or licenses about 39,500 stores worldwide.
Stickers plastered on the walls of local stores depict a burning Starbucks logo featuring a mermaid. The mermaid’s face has been replaced by La Calavera Catrina, a skull-like figure associated with Mexican Day of the Dead and the country’s national identity.
After the first fire in August 2023, the word “NO” preceded by an expletive was spray-painted on the partially burned building that was supposed to house a Starbucks coffee shop.
From the Native Pueblo uprising against Spanish settlement in 1680, to the Taos uprising against American occupation in 1847, to the recent arson attack against a construction tycoon and opposition to a billionaire’s construction of a ski resort, Taos residents have resisted outside forces.
“Taos is a dynamic and unstable contact zone between different groups, imperial powers and ecotones,” said Sylvia Rodriguez, a retired professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico who has conducted research in her hometown of Taos for decades.
Located 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) above sea level in the high desert of northern New Mexico, Taos is known for its UNESCO World Heritage-listed Native American settlement, art scene and steep ski runs.
The area is deeply inequitable and conflict-ridden between indigenous people, Latinos (descendants of colonial settlers), and other communities, and has the highest property crime rate in New Mexico.
People like Lazar complain that the wave of remote workers during and after the pandemic is increasing demand for nationwide chains and worsening housing shortages common in Western U.S. resort towns.
The Taos City Council supported the store, saying it would provide jobs and tax revenue, according to Christopher Larsen, the city’s economic development director.
“NOT COOL”
World Cup club owner Andrea Meyer said jobs were not the issue.
“People come in and say, ‘I’d love to work here, but I can’t afford to live here,’” said Meyer, who runs a cash-only coffee shop that doesn’t have Wi-Fi to encourage customers to talk to each other.
Few working households can afford the median home price in Taos of $460,000. About a third of the units are vacant, some as second homes and vacation rentals, others after time-honored Hispanic families left the area or for other reasons, according to census data.
According to Larsen, two or three national chains have pulled out of projects in Taos after Starbucks burned down for a second time on Oct. 23, 2023.
“There is a perception that Taos doesn’t want corporate America,” he said.
Starbucks spokesman Sam Jefferies said employee safety was its top priority and that it would work closely with police once the store reopened. No one was injured in the fires.
The city has licenses for Starbucks outlets in two supermarkets. Jefferies said the store’s performance in nearby cities was a factor in deciding to open the Taos store.
Based on news reports from the past three decades, Taos is the only place in the world where a future Starbucks store burned to the ground.
Neither the contractor, Hart Construction, nor the developer and Arizona owner of the building, Clint Jameson, responded to requests for comment. On his company’s website, Jameson, who plans to lease the property to Starbucks, describes himself as “tenacious” and a “rebel developer.”
The city and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have offered a $30,000 reward for information about the fires. Police believe they know the perpetrator or perpetrators, but there is no evidence to place them at the scene of the fire, Larsen said. Taos Police Chief John Wentz declined to comment. ATF spokesman Cody Monday said the agency was continuing to follow up on leads and search for the suspect or suspects.
Pablo Flores, owner of Coffee Apothecary, a mile south of the city’s central square, confirmed there is demand for Starbucks-style drinks, such as the frozen caramel frappe, which he tells disappointed customers he does not serve.
The coffee roaster lamented the formulaic sameness of the national chains springing up south of the city, but he was disgusted by their destruction, seeing the fires as an example of how dialogue has broken down amid political polarization across the country.
“Taos is changing, and if you don’t like the way it’s changing, don’t support the business,” said Flores, whose family has lived in Taos for generations. “Don’t burn it down, that’s not cool.”
