A new Starbucks that was to open Friday morning at 1202 N. Main St. has one conspicuous feature lacking in the old store a block away: a drive-through.

According to a sign posted on the door, an “exclusive preview” between 4 and 6 p.m. Thursday was to give customers the opportunity to inspect the new location while enjoying complimentary beverages and “delicious samples.”

Asked why the store was relocating such a short distance from its former location, a company spokeswoman stated, “Starbucks is always looking for great locations to better meet the needs of our customers.”

“Choosing a site for a new Starbucks location is a key element in providing customers with the Starbucks experience. We carefully consider many factors when opening a new store,” she added.

One of those factors could be the chief executive officer’s announcement of a large-scale plan to maximize the extra profits yielded by stores with drive-through lanes. The former location could not support a drive-through window and lane, while the new premises — on the northern tip of the strip mall that also houses eateries and retailers including Little Caesars Pizza, Subway and Sprint — does.

During a January 2013 quarterly conference call, Howard Schultz, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, reportedly announced that 60 percent of the 1,500 new stateside locations Starbucks planned for openings in the next five years would have drive-up windows.

At the time, Schultz reported that while stores with drive-through lanes accounted for a third of its U.S. locations, they contributed nearly 45 percent of operating profit.

Locally, at least, the company’s solution for outfitting stores with drive-thru windows seems to have been to locate them at one end of a strip mall. Customers pull up to a window on the end of the building.

While North Suffolk’s Harbour View Starbucks that employs this concept opened in 2009, the Chesapeake Square coffeehouse relocated a couple of months ago to a new building not far away with a drive-through.