Barrow is set to get its first ever Starbucks after a planning application was given the green light.
The drive-thru branch of the popular coffee chain is to be situated in the car park of Asda in Walney Road.
It will mean more competition for independent cafés in Barrow but Ozlem Korkmaz, co-owner of Coffee Time in Cavendish Street, said she was not worried.
“All our customers are coming back, and new customers as well,” she said. “At the moment it’s not very busy but, after Christmas and New Year, they will come back.
“We do good food, that’s why they are happy, and good coffee as well. I never have bad reviews from our customers, so I’m happy and they are happy too.”
Mrs Korkmaz welcomed the impending arrival of Starbucks.
“When you get a new business, it doesn’t matter who is the owner, it’s good because people want to get out, there’s nothing left in Barrow,” she said.
Tracey Cuthbertson, owner of Proper Filling in Michaelson Road, said the new Starbucks branch ‘won’t make any difference’ to her business, feeling her food offering was different enough from the coffee giant to keep people coming.
“It’s all freshly made, you can come in and pick what you want, people can see you making it in front of them, that’s what customers want to see,” she said.
“We use all local suppliers, everything’s biodegradable and recyclable. We have got a full salad bar.”
The Starbucks branch, which will have an indoor seating area and an outdoor seating/terrace area, is to be situated on the eastern side of the Asda car park, close to the vehicular access from Holker Street.
A planning statement submitted in support of the application said the development would share parking spaces with the supermarket.
It said the drive-thru would result in a net loss of 67 parking bays, reducing provision to 434 spaces.
The statement, submitted by RPS Group, said it was anticipated the drive-thru would use a maximum of 13 parking spaces which, when looked at alongside the
results of a drone parking survey to determine maximum car park occupancy, left a ‘surplus’ of 159 bays. It said the site would result in ‘up to 20 new jobs – 13 full-time equivalent jobs’.
