So I have found myself being curious. With Starbucks closing so many of its locations, what are they doing with all that equipment? Are they selling it, storing it, giving it away? And, would it be worth actually trying to get any of it? (is it worth having).
Just random questions in my head :-)
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I wonder whether they lease the equipment as it stands. It might have proven fairly useful financially and strategically to spin off an equipment manufacturing company that exclusively built and leased the equipment to the retail company. Then, they could get a strong position in the equipment side of the business and thus sell to their competitors. In which case, with store closures, the equipment could be returned to the manufacturing/leasing company who could then easily redirect the equipment by leasing to other coffee companies.

But, that would be my novice entrepeneurial way of looking at it. I have no evidence to substantiate this.

Cheers

Cyanide
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Most likely they are leasing it so it can swapped out a set time, and vendor can fix it since they "own" it.

There's plenty of used coffee brewing equipment available as it is already. Try "craigslist" and you'll be amazed. Every city has an espresso/coffee machine vendor that also has used machines. If you are looking at espresso machines, the ones they use are 220 and have plumbed water. Even being used, they are quite expensive.

Another route, is check your city paper in the auction pages. There's always restaurants going out of business and everything from pots and pans, the espresso machines can be bought pretty cheap. Auctions are fun too.
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I was wondering if they would be leasing. Still, someone has a lot of equipment running around out there :-)
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It's all leased - that way it is under contract for repairs when someone screws up and blows a pump - well, now that I think about it, that was Joe Muggs....not Starbucks.....disregard!!!
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I don't think any of the equipment would work out so well for in home use.
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Here's a good one for cheap in my area: Isomac Tea E61 lever Espresso Machine


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my brother has one of those, or at least one very similar
Nice machine :-), probably too much for my needs though :-)
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And you're talking about buying a commercial machine from Starbucks. There's plenty of posting I saw on CL, just picked the one that sounded really good. Heck, I may even pick that one up...
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I should probably clarify :-)

It is not so much that I was looking to buy one of those machines, I was really just curious what might be done with them :-) (though if someone offered me one at a quarter its normal value, well, that would likely be a different story :-))
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