Oak Park, MI - Starbucks Could Join Dunkin' Donuts on Going Kosher

Oak Park, MI - Going kosher was good for business at Dunkin' Donuts in northwest Oak Park, an enclave of Orthodox Jewry. It has helped a nearby 7-Eleven, which is often filled with kids in yarmulkes clamoring for kosher Slurpees. And now, kosher might become a draw at a Starbucks.

Starbucks is eyeing a spot at a shopping center under construction at 10 Mile and Greenfield, the strip, adjacent to a Jewish high school, and Oak Park Mayor Gerald Naftaly is hoping it will offer an expanded kosher fare.
Naftaly said he and local rabbis are pressing Starbucks, whose coffee is kosher, to stock kosher creamers and milk at its new location. He said he's working to also get Starbucks to sell packaged kosher baked goods, perhaps from a local bakery.

In some ways, being almost completely kosher is a disadvantage for the Dunkin' Donuts just north of the new center.  Owner Ted Jabbori said he can't carry meat products -- sausage and bacon, among them -- and he has to pass on new products that wouldn't pass muster with the rabbis who provide him direction.  
But, overall, being kosher has been good for business.  "If we had to do it all again, we probably would because of all the new friends we've made in the Jewish community. A lot of people appreciate it, and they tell us every day," he said.

Jabbori said he's not threatened by the possibility of a kosher Starbucks just down the road. He's got coffee, and Dunkin' Donuts customers, "our customer is not a Starbucks customer," Jabbori said.