Golden Gate Shopping Center in Greensboro has gone through quite a few transitions in the 22 years of the current century.
Coffee lovers will be glad to hear that, as part of the latest change, construction crews are now hard at work turning the center’s former Wells Fargo branch into the city’s next Starbucks coffee establishment.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wells Fargo Bank began limiting the hours of operations at certain branches, including the one at Golden Gate Shopping Center. Then, in 2022, the bank sent notice to its customers that the branch was closing for good.
For some time, the ATM remained operational beside the empty structure; however, that ATM has now been moved from the side of the former bank and become a stand-alone ATM closer to the center of the shopping center.
One worker on the Starbucks project said he wasn’t sure when the extensive building renovations would be complete, but he said a similar project in Reidsville took about six months.
Golden Gate Shopping Center has been home to a Starbucks before. However, that location shut down over a decade ago. The previous Starbucks at the shopping center closed in February 2012.
In 2014, another coffee shop – downtown Greensboro’s popular java establishment The Green Bean – expanded into the Golden Gate Shopping Center, only to close that store later.
Also in 2014, a new shopping center owner brought in a traveling zoo to draw attention to the center – but that zoo also ended up drawing the attention of animal rights activists who said the traveling “Jungle Safari Zoo” was inherently cruel to animals.
One of the biggest blows to Golden Gate Shopping Center came in July of 2011 when a very popular Harris Teeter store that served as an anchor for the center closed down.
The center does currently have a Food Lion store that draw a considerable amount of business.
Just a note. The previous Golden Gate Starbucks was also located in an empty bank building. I guess with inflation, a bank vault is needed to store both the beans and the profits.
Who in their right mind pay what they charge for their coffee
Prissy smug liberals!
Anyone who has read of the corporate culture at Wells Fargo, including huge fines paid to the govt, would know why Wells Fargo would leave anywhere (loss of customers).
Reminds me of the Capitol riots when Trump left office. The govt REQUESTED Bank of America info about every customer who was traveling to/from DC at that time. Without warrant or any coercion, Bank of America handed over all their credit card info to the govt. I call this illegal search without cause. Bank of America is complicit.
Big Banks are in it with Big Brother. No hay sus amigos.
Some of this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.
I remember that Ronald Reagan said something to the effect that we could lose our Republic in less than a generation. How are we doing on that?
No Miller, you’re right. The big banks are in bed with the Deep State and I’m sad to say that Bank of America is the worst and most totalitarian of the lot. They even demand to record my ID when I make a cash payment on my credit card at a local branch – because they’re co-operating with the Feds to track every dollar and every dime.
None of my other local bank credit cards demand ID.
My first bank in Greensboro as a student at UNC-G was the NCNB on West Lee Street (now a gas station). Back then it was a good community based North Carolina bank. Now it’s just another global money center mega-bank that’s essentially a part of the Deep State. I don’t know why I maintain a relationship with them. Inertia, I guess.
They will soon being seeing the glassy eyed, well dressed followers of Starbucks shuffling in droning out their orders.
JUST KIDDING!!! Lighten up people