Price Cutter brings Starbucks to OTC

Price Cutter last week opened a Starbucks kiosk in the Information Commons at Ozarks Technical Community College, 1001 E. Chestnut Expressway.

In the deal the school structured with Price Cutter, OTC leases the space to the grocer for $1,000 a month, and the school will collect 1.5 percent of profitonce Starbucks’ sales reach $800,000 a year, said Mark Miller, OTC’s director of communications.

Miller said school administrators responded to student feedback desiring a Starbucks and invested $60,000 to prepare the space for gas, water and electric.

“We didn’t want to be a franchisee,” Miller said, noting school officials approached Price Cutter after students said their coffee shop of choice was Starbucks.

The kiosk, which employs 18 to serve students, faculty and visitors, sells the full line of Starbucks drinks, pastries and sandwiches.

With the July 7 opening on OTC’s campus, Price Cutter now operates eight Starbucks kiosks in Springfield and 16 kiosks in stores from Lebanon to Joplin, according to PriceCutterOnline.com.