After two arson attacks on a Starbucks construction site in Taos, New Mexico, a developer is trying again to build the chain’s first drive-thru cafe in the mountain town that has a history of rebellion and opposition to national chains.
It didn’t take long for locals in this community of 6,500 to decide on a nickname for the would-be coffee shop: “Charbucks.” Meanwhile, a construction contractor in Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, has installed video cameras and a security guard sleeps on site in a camouflage trailer.
About a mile north of the store site, which Starbucks hopes to open in the spring of 2025, customers at Taos’ oldest independent coffee shop are silent about the attacks.
“We don’t know who did it, but we really liked it,” said Todd Lazarus, a holistic therapist, chatting with other regular spectators on a bench outside the World Cup stands near Taos’ central plaza.
Their conversation reflected criticism Starbucks has faced as it has ventured into Europe and Asia, saying the U.S. coffee chain clashes with local culture and will siphon money from communities. Starbucks operates or licenses about 39,500 cafes worldwide.
The stickers, affixed to locally owned businesses, show the Starbucks logo — which features a mermaid — burning, and the mermaid’s face replaced with the face of La Calavera Catrina, a skull-headed character associated with Mexico’s Day of the Dead and that country’s national identity.
After the first fire in August 2023, the word “NO” along with an expletive was spray-painted on the partially burned structure that was intended to be a Starbucks.
From the indigenous Pueblo Revolt against Spanish settlements in 1680 to the Taos Rebellion against American occupation in 1847 and more recently an arson attack on a development tycoon and opposition to a billionaire’s ski resort development, Taos locals have resisted outside forces.
“Taos is a dynamic and unstable contact zone between different groups, imperial powers, ecological tones,” said Sylvia Rodriguez, professor emerita of anthropology at the University of New Mexico, who has researched her hometown of Taos for decades.
Located 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) above sea level in the high mountain desert of northern New Mexico, Taos is known for its UNESCO World Heritage Site Native American settlement, arts scene and steep ski runs.
The region has deep social inequalities and segregation between indigenous, Hispano (descendants of colonial settlers), and other communities, and has one of the highest rates of property crime in New Mexico.
People like Lazarus complain that a surge in workers working remotely during and after the pandemic is fueling demand for national chains and a general housing shortage in America’s Western resort towns.
Taos’ city council supported the store on the grounds that it would bring jobs and tax revenue, according to Christopher Larson, the city’s economic development director
“Not cool”
World Cup boss Andrea Mayer said jobs were not the problem.
“People are coming in saying, ‘I would love to work here, I can’t afford to live here.'” Meyer runs a cafe that’s cash-only and doesn’t have Wi-Fi so customers can talk to each other.
Few working families can afford Taos’ median home price of $460,000. About a third of housing units sit vacant, some as second homes and vacation residences, others because of traditional Hispano families leaving the area or for other reasons, according to census data.
According to Larson, two or three national chains will pull out of Taos projects after Starbucks files for a second bankruptcy on October 23, 2023.
“It feels like Taos doesn’t want corporate America,” he said.
Starbucks spokesman Sam Jefferies said employee safety is their top priority and they will work closely with police once the store reopens. No one was injured in the fire.
The city has licensed Starbucks outlets in two supermarkets. Jefferies said the cafe’s performance in nearby towns was a factor in opening the Taos store.
Based on news reports over the past three decades, Taos appears to be the only place in the world where a would-be Starbucks cafe has burned to the ground.
Neither contractor Hart Construction nor Arizona-based developer and building owner Clint Jameson responded to requests for comment. On his company’s website, Jameson, who plans to lease the property to Starbucks, describes himself as “tireless” and “enthusiastic about development.”
The city and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have offered a $30,000 reward for information about the fire. Larson said police believe they know the culprit or culprits, but do not have evidence they were at the scene during the fire. Taos Police Chief John Wentz declined to comment. ATF spokesman Cody said Monday that the agency continues to pursue leads and search for the suspect or suspects.
Pablo Flores, owner of Coffee Apothecary, a mile south of the city’s central plaza, confirmed demand for Starbucks-like drinks such as iced caramel frappes, which he tells disappointed customers he doesn’t serve.
The specialty coffee roaster lamented the cookie-cutter uniformity of the national chains that have sprung up south of the city, but was disgusted by their destruction. He saw 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 how it’s changing, don’t support that business,” said Flores, whose family has lived in Taos for generations. “Don’t burn it down, it’s not good.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)