First Official Sign of Starbucks

Rumors have been circulating the Junction for a month now but yesterday we had the first official sign we are getting a Starbucks.

A sign building permit has been issued for 3077 Dundas Street West (former Handyman Shop).

Application # 10 240401 DST 00 DS – Installation of two(2) first party illuminated signs, one projection sign and one wall sign for “STARBUCKS”.

Good, bad or otherwise the Junction is changing.


-blog post text by Martin L of the Junction Residents association, logo Starbucks

Location:McMurray Ave,Toronto,Canada

23 Comments

Boo! (Sorry JunctionJim. All due respect.) There's far better coffee in the Junction right now. We need good independent, local shops. Screw some mediocre multinational.

Why do people enjoy paying way too much money for horrible burnt coffee at starbucks?

As a local junction resident who enjoys Crema and Agora and the multitude of other independant, local coffee shops that actually have some personality and not just robotic, drone customers – I say keep Starbucks out of the Junction – we don't want your crappy overpriced corporate coffee here.

Did you really need to put it in directly across the street from another coffee shop just as a "screw you"? Go back to Younge and Eglington where the yuppies are – you'll be better liked.

Hey Matt, it's cool we are all entitled to our opinion, to me Starbucks shows a real positive interest in the neighbourhood, perhaps the Starbucks will help those independant shops by bringing in more customers to the area.

Now that its happening, lets wait and see…

I avoid Starbucks for the same reason I avoid Wal-Mart, they're American owned.

Second Cup is a Canadian outfit, which I would make detours to.

The only burnt coffee I've had in the junction is Cool Hand! And I got news for you ResidentB… The junction is a yuppy spot now… the cost of houses should show you that. If you want a little village lifestyle where you can keep it real I'd suggest Norwood or any of the hamlets in the Peterborough area.

Then by that account you shouldnt' be on this website. It's powered by "WordPress" which is a Californian company. Plus the "Breakingprojects" domain was registered with Network Solutions… a HUGE american web corp that takes lots of money away from smaller web companies.

Meh – I know lots of local people who won't give them business – that's all you can really do at this point…support the local, independent coffee merchants and leave the Starbucks to those who feel homogenized, corporate chains belong in this neighbourhood

I can't see it affecting the indy cafes (since the clientele are more conscious of quality).
I think it could affect the the Coffee Time/Tim Horton's clientele.

If you look at Leslieville and the amount of cafe's sprouting up, even with a Starbucks in the area, there's plenty to go around.

At the very least, it brings in more interest to the area.

There might not necessarily be a Starbucks coming. There's a former dry cleaners near the Loblaws at Dupont & Christie that got a variance for a giant illuminated Starbucks sign and was painted the Starbucks shade of green. But the place has been empty for over a year now – the realtor can't find a tenant.

Strictly on coffee quality, I'll still be going to Crema.

To those who aspire to gentrify the Junction: you can't have your cake and eat it too. You want lots of new money in the Junction, you have to put up with Starbucks. And Subway. And losing small local businesses as the rents go up…

Rent going up forces out seedy places like Concourse and the payday advance loan spots. BRING IT ON!

and rents going up could eventually force out places like Big Daddy's, Delight and Curry Twist, who almost moved at one point because of a rent dispute

look no further Mount Dennis up on Weston between BlackCreek and Jane has lots of empty storefronts and cheap rents not too different than the Junction circa 2000. Its the new frontier and not for the lighthearted latte crowd, but of course in a few years, that same crowd will pay $700k for a fixer upper townhouse there after the heavy duty lifting has been done by the artists and the pioneers

Um, the payday loan places can afford the higher rents – that's why they have the high visibility corner spots…

Hopefully this will push Crema to step up their game. I haven't had a decent latte there since they opened their second location 🙁

Yes, but along with that comes more shitty, crappy chains like Starbucks and Subway that aren't any good, serve mediocre coffee and sub sandwiches (you'd get better subs by going to the local deli and grocery store and buying the bread, meat, cheese & condiments, taking it home, then making it yourself!) and make the area boring and lifeless. Is that what you want?

It is impossible to have too many cafes (Crema, Good Neighbourhood my fave). As an old Roncie-ite, I saw the Roncie Village boom after more cafes were added (The ALternative Cafe was the very first one. The owner, Linda, said her business was not affected a whit with Second Cup, which came and went). Yes it became more gentrified but cooler too. Though not as cool as Junction. Those who want Starbucks will come and spend money in other funky stores and venues. Bring it on!

Leave a Reply to Theirry Cancel reply