Starbucks to Begin Re-Opening Select Stores

With physical stores apart from some drive-thrus closed across the country, Starbucks is aiming to re-open select stores on May 4 as a way to ease back into normalcy since COVID-19 restrictions.

In a letter last week from Starbucks executive vice president Rossann Williams to employees and partners, Williams said the company is looking to open as many stores as possible starting on May 4 with “modified operations and best-in-class safety measures.” The re-opening phase will ask any able-bodied employee who doesn’t have pre-existing risks associated with COVID-19 to begin reporting back to duty at select stores chosen to re-open. Starbucks is continuing to pay employees an extra $3 an hour for shifts, and is expanding other related benefits to the end of May. Catastrophe pay will be unavailable to employees without COVID-19 who choose not to work following May 3.

Starbucks is expected to release their earnings report for the first three months of 2020 on April 28.

Starbucks' re-opening comes at a time when many major chains and businesses are choosing to remain relatively closed, despite the federal government and a few states urging them to re-open. Georgia began re-opening some nonessential businesses this week, while mayors in Atlanta and other cities urged their citizens to continue social distancing measures in spite of their governor.