By Andrew Hay
TAOS, New Mexico (Reuters) – After two arson attacks at a Starbucks construction site in Taos, New Mexico, a developer is trying again to build the chain’s first drive-in cafe in the mountain town, which has a history of uprisings and resistance to those chains by some national chains.
It wasn’t long before locals in the 6,500-person community had a nickname for the cafe: “Charbucks.” Now the developer, based in Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, has installed video cameras, and a security guard sleeps in a camouflaged trailer at the construction site.
Just over a mile north of the location of the branch Starbucks plans to open in spring 2025, patrons of one of Taos’ oldest independent cafes are remaining silent about the attacks.
“We don’t know who did it, but we really enjoyed it,” said Todd Lazar, a holistic healer, as he chatted with other patrons on a bench outside the World Cup, just off Taos’ central plaza.
Their conversation reflects criticism Starbucks has faced as it expands into Europe and Asia, that the US coffee chain clashes with local culture and drains money from communities. Starbucks operates or licenses around 39,500 cafes worldwide.
Stickers at local store locations feature the Starbucks logo – which depicts a mermaid – in flames, with the mermaid’s face replaced by La Calavera Catrina, a skull figure associated with Mexico’s Day of the Dead and the country’s national identity.
After the first fire in August 2023, the word “NO” followed by a swear word was spray-painted on the partially burned-out building that was supposed to be a Starbucks cafe.
From the revolt of the indigenous Pueblo peoples against Spanish settlement in 1680 to the Taos Uprising against U.S. occupation in 1847, and more recently to the arson attack on a developer and resistance to a billionaire’s construction of a ski resort, Taos residents have always resisted outside forces.
“Taos is a dynamic and volatile contact zone between different groups, imperial powers and ecotones,” says Sylvia Rodriguez, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of New Mexico, who has researched her hometown of Taos for decades.
Located 2,134 meters above sea level in the high mountain desert of northern New Mexico, Taos is known for its UNESCO World Heritage-listed Indian settlement, its art scene and its steep ski slopes.
The area also suffers from deep social inequalities and divides between indigenous peoples, Hispanics – the descendants of colonial settlers – and other communities, and has the highest property crime rate in New Mexico.
People like Lazar complain that a wave of telecommuting during and after the pandemic is driving demand for national chains and exacerbating the housing shortage widespread in resort towns across the Western United States.
The Taos City Council supported the store on the grounds that it would create jobs and tax revenue, said Christopher Larsen, the city’s economic development director.
“NOT COOL”
WM owner Andrea Meyer said jobs were not the problem.
“People come and say, ‘I’d like to work here, but I can’t afford to live here,'” says Meyer, who runs a cash-only cafe that has no Wi-Fi to encourage customers to talk to each other.
Few working households can afford the $460,000 median home price in Taos. According to census data, about a third of the housing units are vacant, some as second homes or vacation homes, others after traditional Hispanic families left the area, or other factors.
According to Larsen, two or three national chains withdrew from their projects in Taos after Starbucks burned a second time on October 23, 2023.
“There is a feeling that Taos does not want the American economy,” he said.
Starbucks spokesman Sam Jefferies said employee safety was a top priority and the company would work closely with police once the store reopened. No one was injured in the fires.
The city has licensed Starbucks locations in two supermarkets. Jefferies said the performance of cafes in surrounding towns was a factor in opening a Taos store.
According to news reports over the past three decades, Taos appears to be the only place in the world where a prospective Starbucks cafe has been burned to the ground.
Neither the contractor, Hart Construction, nor Arizona-based developer and builder Clint Jameson responded to requests for comment. On his company website, Jameson, who plans to lease the property to Starbucks, describes himself as “relentless” and a “construction maverick.”
The city and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have offered a $30,000 reward for information on the fires. Police believe they know the perpetrator or perpetrators, but lack evidence to place them at the scene during the fires, Larsen said. Taos Police Chief John Wentz declined to comment. ATF spokesman Cody Monday said the agency is continuing to follow up on leads and search for the suspect or suspects.
At the Coffee Apothecary, a mile south of the city’s central square, owner Pablo Flores vouched for demand for Starbucks-like drinks like Iced Caramel Frappes, which he told disappointed customers he doesn’t serve.
The coffee roaster lamented the uniformity of the nationwide chains springing up south of the city, but detested their destruction. He saw the fires as an example of how dialogue has broken down in the face of political polarization across the country.
“Taos is changing, and if you don’t like the way it’s changing, don’t support this business,” said Flores, whose family has lived in Taos for generations. “Don’t burn it down, that’s not cool.”
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson and Matthew Lewis)
