Coffee shop sells its last drop

WINSTED — Winsted-area residents will now have to travel a little farther to get their daily venti mocha frozen frappuccino.

The Starbucks kiosk located in the Stop & Shop Supermarket on New Hartford Road in Winsted has closed, serving its last drink to customers on Sunday.

Stop & Shop employees — including store manager Matt Balboni — have declined to comment on the kiosk’s closure, referring comments to the Massachusetts-based supermarket chain’s media relations department.

Several information requests by The Journal on why the kiosk was closing, the future employment of the baristas who worked there and what, if anything, would replace the coffee bar went unanswered by the company.

In news reports last August, however, Stop & Shop management announced that it would be closing several Starbucks kiosks in its supermarkets because the locations were underperforming.

That round of closings was expected to be completed by the end of September, with many of the sites switching to unmanned, automated coffee dispensing machines.

The supermarket chain first announced in 2006 it would open Starbucks coffee bars, operated by Stop & Shop employees, in dozens of its New England stores. Many of the new Starbucks kiosks at that time replaced coffee bars that had featured Dunkin’ Donut products.

March been eventful for the Winsted store.

Earlier this month, the supermarket chain averted a possible labor strike after Stop & Shop employees ratified a new three-year agreement with the supermarket chain.

Local 371, the local chapter of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, unanimously approved the new contract during a meeting at the Omni Hotel in New Haven March 7.

The Winsted store employs about 100 members of Local 371.

The new contract includes enhancements to the workers’ health insurance benefits and pension plans, as well as wage increases.

All five of the local union chapters in New England that include Stop & Shop employees approved the new agreement.