MSU announced the decision to build the new coffee shop this August, and Guy Procopio, MSU’s director of Culinary Services, said MSU will retain all of the shop’s profits as a franchise owner.

Procopio could not provide the building cost of the new store because of a confidentiality agreement with the company but said profits will go toward keeping room and board costs down for students.

“The school came to us and said, ‘We’d like to have a coffee shop here,’” he said. “We studied what … (our) peer institutions were doing. The new model is for the school to become the franchisee.”

The decision to build a Starbucks instead of an additional Sparty’s Convenience Stores came down to space constraints, Procopio said.
Sparty’s operates about 20 convenience stores across campus.

Human biology junior Alexa Garrison said she’s excited about the Starbucks location and supported the choice of a Starbucks more than a Sparty’s location.

“I don’t know any other university that has a Starbucks in one of their buildings,” she said.

The new Starbucks already has hired about 30 students and is hiring more, Procopio said.

After MSU announced its decision this summer, a small backlash came from some community members, some of whom were pushing for a Biggby Coffee franchise instead of a Starbucks.

Biggby is based in East Lansing and owned by Bob Fish, an MSU alumnus. The franchise has one campus location in the Union.

Fish said he was disappointed Biggby did not receive heavy input from MSU during the project.

“Our opinion (on the new Starbucks location) is that we were not involved in the process,” he said. “It was very cursory kind of contact.”

Fish said his company remains in continued dialogue with MSU about future campus locations.

Procopio said his department was “amazed” by the number of positive comments they received about the new Starbucks.

The shop is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, with varying hours on weekends.