Starbucks shuts city stores for 2 weeks
Tough beans, java-juiced New Yorkers — Starbucks locations in the city are closing for the next two weeks, workers told the Daily News.
Nationwide, the chain said it’s limiting service to delivery and drive-thru — no help to Big Apple coffee junkies, where drive-thru windows are scarce.
Some Starbucks cafes will stay open in or around hospitals and health care centers, the company said.
Employees will get up to 30 days’ pay during the closure, even if they choose to stay home.
“Business has been slow anyway,” said a at a Midtown Starbucks. “Everybody’s getting paid and nobody’s being laid off. It’ll be nice getting a couple of weeks vacation.”
“But any more than that is real trouble,” the barista added. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Another barista at a Financial District location celebrated the news as he sanitized the shop before closing.
“It’s great… We’re shutting down for two weeks and getting paid. I love Starbucks,” he said.
Besides continued pay, Starbucks says it will also keep up mental health and sick pay benefits, child care support, and more.
“The magnitude of managing through this situation is the single biggest challenge many of us have faced in our lifetime,” said Rossann Williams, executive vice president and president of Starbucks company-operated stores in the U.S. and Canada.
“With daily news from friends and family members getting laid off and businesses closing, we need one another more than ever,” Williams wrote. “We need to be a different kind of company.”