Stop & Shop to Shut In-Store Starbucks Kiosks

Not only is Starbucks closing hundreds of its own stores, but now it's also losing around 43 in-store kiosks in Stop & Shop and Giant supermarkets. According to a Stop & Shop spokeswoman, "It was a business decision we arrived at with Starbucks." The sister supermarket chains will keep Starbucks in locations where it's doing well and even open a few new ones, but the underperforming kiosks will go.

Stop & Shop (along with Giant, which shares Royal Ahold as a parent company) knows it wants to sell coffee, but it seems it hasn't yet figured out the best way to do so. Starbucks moved into Stop & Shop and Giant in 2006 -- at the time displacing some of the in-store Dunkin' Donuts locations, which had been introduced in 2002.

Some locations still have Dunkin' Donuts and others will continue with Starbucks, but there's also a third option -- self-serve Van Houtte coffee kiosks. These will be replacing many of the shuttered Starbucks, and have already replaced some of the Dunkin' Donuts.

The old kiosks were staffed by supermarket employees, not by Starbucks, so the self-serve option could save Stop & Shop some cash. I won't be surprised if the chain eventually boots out Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts completely and lets Van Houtte take over.