Photo by Jenny Kirk Customers (from left) Cathy Blair and Brady Borowski wait patiently for the items they ordered on Thursday afternoon at the new-opened Starbucks in Marshall.

MARSHALL — A steady flow of customers were lining up to order beverages and other items about mid-day on Thursday at the newly-opened Starbucks located within the Marshall Hy-Vee store. Starbucks manager Amanda Peterson said it’s been that way since the coffee shop opened on Monday.

“It’s going really well,” Peterson said. “We definitely have a constant flow of people coming through the door. Our numbers have been really good. We have some younger high schoolers on our staff and they’re really spreading the word at their school, so that’s nice.”

Peterson said the new Starbucks offers a full menu nearly identical to a regular Starbucks.

“Aside from the Nitro, which there isn’t a single store in Minnesota that does have that — even corporate-wide — we have everything that a corporate store can offer,” she said. “It’s great.”

Marshall Hy-Vee director Matt Parkhurst said the Starbucks addition was roughly a $250,000 investment.

“Overall, the investment is pretty close to $250,000,” Parkhurst said. “That includes everything, including the construction and equipment. We’re really proud to be able to offer this new addition. And it’s been really well received so far. It’s been very popular.”

Parkhurst said the new Starbucks is like another department in the Hy-Vee store, so several employees needed to be hired.

“Overall, we have a crew of between 15-20 employees that we hired just for this,” he said. “They’re a great crew, too. I can’t say that enough. They trained for about a month before we opened. Amanda and (assistant manager) Kaytlin (Geistseld) went to another store for a couple of weeks and trained, but everybody else trained here for a couple of weeks. And training will be ongoing.”

The employees working the counter on Thursday afternoon pleasantly welcomed everyone into Starbucks. Some of those lining up were already repeat customers.

“Some people need their coffee,” Parkhurst said. “It’s just one of those things. We have some regulars established already and it’s only Thursday.”

Starbucks is scheduled to be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Daily.

“So far the morning and between 3-5 p.m., it’s been really busy,” Parkhurst said. “(Wednesday) with the early release (at Marshall Public Schools), it was 2:30-3 p.m. when it really picked up and then it stayed steady for a long time.”

Grocery shoppers will be pleased to know that coffee is allowed in the Marshall Hy-Vee store. A sturdy plastic cup holder that attaches to a cart is available to use.

“Its perfectly fine to take your coffee with you into the store,” Parkhurst said. “You can put (the cup holder) on your cart, put your coffee in it and go shopping. When you’re done, just return it.”

The Starbucks addition has been in the planning process for awhile, Parkhurst said, adding that the consumption of coffee and other specialty drinks have really increased over the years.

“It’s a trending thing,” he said. “So it’s been in the plans for awhile. A lot of planning went into it. Hy-Vee and Starbucks have had kind of a partnership for several years in other markets — other cities — and they’ve gone over really well.”

Parkhurst said construction for Starbucks began in the middle of February.

“The construction started just after Valentine’s Day, I believe,” Parkhurst said. “We used all local contractors for the job. The contractors when they subbed out, they did so locally, too, for the electrician, plumber, those kinds of things, so that was nice. That’s good for the community.”

Along with the extensive list of beverages, Starbucks also offers coffee beans, breakfast sandwiches, pastries and much more.

“Customers can buy coffee beans that we can grind for them,” Parkhurst said. “I tried the breakfast sandwich the other day and it was really good. The pastries are good, too.”

Parkhurst noted that Caribou coffee is still served in the Hy-Vee restaurant and at the gas station.

“Customers can have the best of both worlds,” he said. “It’s not full-service Caribou coffee, but we have it on tap, so to speak in the restaurant and the gas station.”

While there were very few snafus during the opening week, limited seating is already becoming a concern, though it’s something that can be fixed.

“We’re going to be adding quite a bit more seating,” Parkhurst said. “We figured that out pretty quickly in the process, that we needed more seating. So that’s something we’re working on.”

Peterson said the seating has oftentimes been filled up the past few days.

“We have Internet, so people can come and study,” she said. “It’s finals week, so we’ve had a few people in here studying. We have caffeine, which seems to make people happy, so they can just come in and relax, too.”