Sur La Table and Starbucks

If you ever chance to visit the Pike Place Market in Seattle be sure to take a look at two stores that are a block apart. Both of these stores have grown to national importance and in the case of one, to global importance.

The founding stores for both Sur La Table and Starbucks are within 100 feet of each other. They did not start at the same time but they expanded at about the same time, the late 1980s for Starbucks and the mid-1990s for Sur La Table when it was sold to another Seattle company..

As a lover of commerce, this coincidence is of interest. I have no way of knowing whether there is a connection between these two stores that exploded in popularity.

Is it because Seattleites are the leading edge of American consumerism?

Is it something in the water?

Is it really just a coincidence?