JohnFScott/iStockBy KELLY MCCARTHY, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Starbucks has come up with a strategy to keep customers caffeinated amid the dynamic coronavirus pandemic.
The Seattle-based coffee chain, which has remained open in some areas with modified operations amid COVID-19, gradually started to “welcome customers in a variety of ways, determined on a store by store basis,” on May 4 across the U.S. and Canada, the company announced in a press release.
CEO Kevin Johnson joined ABC News’ Good Morning America on Tuesday to highlight how the coffee company made its decision to reopen and how its using examples from stores in China to do so safely and effectively.
“We prioritize the health and the well-being of our Starbucks partners and customers we serve, we support our government and politicians as they contain the virus and show up in a positive way in the communities we serve,” Johnson said. “Those three simple principles have guided us every step of the way and as we open in the United States, 85% of our stores this week, we are doing it with enhanced safety protocols in the stores and experiences that we know we can deliver to customers in a safe way.”
Johnson also said that “China is about seven or eight weeks ahead of where we are in the U.S. so we’ve learned a lot on how to manage this through our experience in China.”
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