My Prediction for SBUX: Gaming is Next

From this morning's Promo Xtra...

Starbucks Hires William Morris to Promote Music, Film
Starbucks Corp. is redefining the casting couch. The mega coffee-maker has gone from staking a claim in the music business to dabbling in movies to announcing a partnership last week with the William Morris Agency to put an emphasis on identifying music, film and book projects that it can promote and distribute from its stores. The effort is a bid to enhance the overall entertainment experience for its millions of dedicated coffee drinkers.

Starbucks touted its national footprint of stores, strong passion and trust from its huge and diverse customer base, and proven track record with word-of-mouth marketing as drivers for the significant interest it has seen-and expects to see-as a partner to labels and studios.
For the full article

My prediction for the next arena the bean-pusher will enter is GAMING. I'm a bit surprised they went with movies before gaming, but that's gotta be for the product placement. I haven't seen Akkelah and The Bee, but I'm betting there's a whole lot o' coffee drinking going on.

Gaming is a more natural match for in-store visits. The high-speed wifi, endless access to caffeine, and the chairs/tables make for laptop heaven -- though I suppose they wouldn't want an army of high school kids with laptops and headphones camping-out in their thirdspace.