Starbucks has opened a coffee booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (Nyse) to serve caffeine-deprived traders during lulls in trading.
The opening of the store brings the Nyse full circle from its earliest incarnation at the Tontine Coffee House in New York in 1793 following the historic Buttonwood agreement between brokers.
The new Starbucks kiosk will serve the Exchange's trader and employee community from 8:00am through the 4:00pm market close. The kiosk was built as part of the Nyse's recent renovation of the trading floor, which has been extensively remodelled to reflect the new realities of computer-based trading.
The kiosk is sited in an area of the floor formerly known as 'Jurassic Park', as it was the only location where senior traders could sit down and take a breather during the hectic trading day.
Finextra Verdict The opening of a Starbucks booth on the Nyse trading floor reminds us of the old Onion gag about Starbucks opening a new outlet inside the toilets of an existing Starbucks store. More pertinently, could this be the start of a new diversification strategy for the Nyse? Why not convert the floor space into an upmarket shopping mall where big name brands can display their wares to high-rolling underemployed floor brokers - and do their stock price a service into the bargain. Stranger things have happened.