Many coffee drinkers in the Evergreen State get a view along with their morning caffeine.
In their newest video (above), restaurant guide Zagat highlights the growing trend of drive-thru coffee stands worked by topless and bikini-clad baristas — both women and men — in Spokane, Washington.
Topless female baristas, like the ones at Bare Beans Expresso, wear just pasties over their nipples. According to a separate report from ABC News, the trend started in Seattle in 2007.
“We are selling coffee,” barista Kiersten Silva told ABC. “Just coffee with a pretty smile, maybe, and some boobie action sometimes.”
In 2013, men aged between 18 and 54 spent almost $7 billion on coffee from drive-thru coffee stands, according to market research company Studylogic. Adding half-naked women to the mix means a “huge difference” to the bottom line, according to Sarah Birnel, who owned three Spokane bikini barista stands in 2013.
“It makes way more money, definitely,” she told ABC. “I would say close to 100 percent more.”
Many in Spokane, however, disagree with the nudity employed by some coffee sellers. Through the years, they’ve protested, lobbied councilmen and started petitions to try to get clothes on the barely clad baristas. All of those efforts, however, have failed.
A Spokane ordinance that proposed local stands put up signs warning customers that their employees are not fully clothed even failed to pass in June, according to the Inlander.
No word yet on whether Starbucks plans to join in on the topless barista trend in their home state.
Written by NextShark
