Operations

Starbucks stores becoming more inclusive

Starbucks has added status boards with visual updates when orders are ready. Photo: Starbucks

February 16, 2024

Thanks to its "Inclusive Spaces Framework," Starbucks' store experience will be more accessible and inclusive for all employees, customers and communities.

Understanding that one in four adults in the United States has a disability, the chain opened its first store Friday in Washington D.C., featuring optimized acoustics and lighting for improved visual and audible communication for customers along with accessible equipment designs for a better employee experience, among other features. Moving forward, all new and renovated Starbucks stores in the U.S. will leverage the Inclusive Spaces Framework, said Katie Young, senior vice president of store operations.

"At Starbucks, we have challenged ourselves to imagine what's possible when we take a closer look at the many ways our partners and customers interact with us and experience our stores every day," she said in a company press release. "Building and scaling an Inclusive Store Framework is central to our mission of connection and will lead to greater access for all."

The framework includes:

• Customer order status boards with visual updates when orders are ready.
• Optimized acoustics and lighting to reduce unwanted background noise and reverberation; minimize glare, shadows and backlighting that help enable better communication.
• Updated point-of-sale system, offering images of menu items to support language diversity and providing visual order confirmation to help ensure order accuracy.
• Accessible entrances, including power-operated doors with a longer vertical push button and generous clearances for entryways.
• Continuous, unobstructed pedestrian paths, including open sightlines and barrier-free pathways through the store.
• lower counters with overhangs to accommodate wheelchair access and support better communication when picking up food and beverages.

"Starbucks opening of their new store built with inclusive design elements is a big moment as we try to make retail spaces more accessible and inclusive," said Tony Coelho, a former U.S. congressman and primary author/sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act. "We have to go beyond just what is required to put accessibility and inclusion first to ensure all people feel like they belong in community spaces."