New location celebrates coffee's journey from field to cup.
Starbucks Coffee Company opened its first store in Panama, making it Starbucks' 15th market in Latin America and 67th worldwide. Starbucks stores in Panama are operated through a strategic licensing agreement with El Salvador-based Premium Restaurants of America, formerly named Corporación de Franquicias Americanas, which initially teamed up with Starbucks in 2010 for the opening of the company's first store in San Salvador. Since then PRA has opened 19 Starbucks stores, with 8 in El Salvador, 5 in Guatemala, 5 in Costa Rica and now 1 in Panama. Starbucks and PRA plan to open at least 20 stores in Panama City over the next five years.
The Starbucks store at Street Mall offers customers an inviting destination to relax, recharge and connect. The 3,304-square-foot space celebrates the Starbucks coffee journey, from its first location in Seattle's Pike Place Market, as highlighted in the store's artwork, to Panama's Paso Ancho and Los Cantares coffee-growing regions in the Volcán Chiriquí Valley, depicted across a large hand-painted mural on a locally-sourced, wood-clad wall.
With a 28-foot-high ceiling, the focal point of the store is a one-of-a-kind custom made hanging mobile, designed to represent the Geisha coffee plant, which signifies the birth of the coffee industry in Panama. The store is dotted with images of Panama's coffee farms and also features tile work resembling a hand painted style unique to the local culture. Starbucks also incorporated design elements from neighboring regions, including furniture from Colombia and wood slatted light fixtures from Brazil.