Pacific Grove >> Business interests in America’s Last Hometown have declared war on corporate coffee.

In reaction to a new multi-million dollar Monterey Starbucks opening less than 400 feet from its border, the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce took an advertisement in Wednesday’s Herald declaring its “preferred coffee shops.”

Starbucks is not on the list and Thursday the chamber will launch a marketing campaign to highlight its smaller, independent coffee shops.

“My mission is to educate and remind our residents and our businesses there are, at least, nine, 10 places where you can have coffee that, to me, is better than Starbucks,” chamber president Moe Ammar said.

Management at the Starbucks directed The Herald to contact its corporate offices for comment. Multiple attempts to reach Starbucks’ press office through phone and email were unsuccessful.

There is, technically, a Starbucks in Pacific Grove inside the Safeway on Forest Avenue. However, it is much smaller than the new store in the former KFC and Long John Silver’s building at 865 Lighthouse Ave.

It is arguable Pacific Grove’s shops will have a hard time competing with the new Starbucks on several fronts.

The so-called preferred shops were BookWorks, Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting Co., Juice N’ Java, Crema, Happy Girl Kitchen Co., Patisserie Bechler and Phoebe’s Cafe.

Of all the locations, Starbucks opens the earliest and stays open the latest all seven days of the week.

The store opens at 5 a.m. The closest to that is Carmel Valley Roasting Co., which opens at 6 a.m.

Starbucks stays open until 10 p.m. The latest any of the nearby preferred stores stay open is 6 p.m. The only exception being Phoebe’s Cafe at Asilomar Conference Grounds that closes at 10 p.m.

All the shops take a special pride in the methods they use to brew their coffee, if it is organic and where the beans come from.

Having said that, Starbucks is the still the second cheapest small coffee of the eight stores at $1.75.

Patisserie Bechler on Forest Avenue charges $1.50, according to an online menu. The highest was Happy Girl Kitchen Co. at $3.

Starbucks has another feature none of the other stores have: a drive-thru.

BookWorks co-owner Margot Tegtmeier said she was not concerned local customers would leave her store for Starbucks, but worried which store tourists would chose.

“I went and checked it out and it’s cool,” she said. “All you can do is try and find your own niche.”

Part of that for her store is the attached book shop, a rare spot for new books on the Peninsula.

Similarly, Crema is far from just a coffee shop. It sells beer and wine, burgers and chicken.

Crema owner Tamie Aceves said she was not worried about the perceived competition.

“It’s a totally different thing,” she said. “There’s plenty of room for all of us.”

A customer sitting outside Carmel Valley Roasting Co. on Wednesday afternoon said she seeks out independent coffee shops.

“I prefer to stimulate our economy here,” said Mariclare McKnight, 36, of Santa Cruz.

In an email statement, the chamber said the upcoming campaign was in the “interest of protecting and preserving the seven small coffee houses in P.G.”

Of the six coffee shops The Herald visited Wednesday afternoon, Starbucks had, at least, double the crowd of the other five. Around 2:30 p.m., there were roughly 35 customers inside and six cars in the drive-thru.

Pacific Grove has an ordinance that prohibits fast-food restaurants and that includes Starbucks, Mayor Bill Kampe said.

He said the Safeway location was deemed legal because it is a “Safeway operation selling Starbucks-branded stuff.”

Kampe declined to make a judgement on the new Lighthouse Avenue store.

“I can only say we certainly notice it,” he said. “Starbucks provides good value. They are an earth-friendly organization and its certainly popular with customers.”

He said the Starbucks may come up in discussion at the City Council’s special meeting Saturday at 515 Junipero Ave. that starts at 9 a.m.

There are roughly 30 Starbucks in Monterey County, counting those in Safeway and Target stores.

Phillip Molnar can be reached at 726-4361.