Starbucks introduces accessibility features, part of larger store expansion strategy

Starbucks has introduced new accessibility features for disabled employees and customers that will be folded into the company’s larger retail footprint expansion over the next few years.

Starbucks unveiled a new store design last month at an opening in Washington, DC’s Union Market. The company said it hopes the concept, known as the Inclusive Spaces Framework, will make the store more accessible to disabled customers, and that other retailers will use the framework to guide their own store accessibility.

The new accessible elements include:

• Order status boards so deaf and hard of hearing customers can see when their order is ready.
• Lower counters to help wheelchair users easily grab their drinks.
• Power doors, making entrance easier for customers with mobility aids or limb differences.
• Acoustics that dampen background noise, which can help customers with sensory sensitivities and people with hearing aids.
• Wider, clear pathways throughout the stores, allowing customers to easily move around.

The new framework will be implemented into all new and renovated US Starbucks stores moving forward, and is the company’s latest effort to make the store experience more inclusive. It will also be open source as a means to advance accessibility throughout the retail industry, the company said.

What’s the plan? Generally, Starbucks has signaled an aggressive push to open new stores, which would include 4% growth this year on a base of over 16,000 locations, including licensed stores, according to a company press release. At the end of last year, Starbucks introduced its Triple Shot with Two Pumps reinvention strategy, which lays out its long-term growth strategy and includes expanding to 55,000 stores by 2030, and “growing the portfolio with more purpose-defined stores,” Starbucks said in its announcement.

• The economics, as of right now, make sense for Starbucks’s growth strategy. Brand new company-operated—not licensed—locations in the United States are “average unit volumes of approximately $2 million with ROIs of approximately 50%,” Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan told investors during a January earnings call.
• He said the company is upping the percentage of new stores in lower-tier markets and new county cities where the company sees “meaningfully stronger new-store economics.”

“We moved quickly to respond and implement a plan to address these unexpected headwinds,” he said. “It will take time for these action plans to be fully realized. That said, we remain confident in our Triple Shot strategy and our long-term growth.”

The big picture: It’s estimated that more than 40 million people in the United States are disabled, which is why Starbucks has integrated Inclusive Spaces into its broader store-growth strategy, Emily MacKinnon, director of inclusive design at Starbucks, told HR Brew.

“One thing we’ve been focused on is: How can we scale more accessible experiences, inclusive experiences across the entire store portfolio?” MacKinnon said. “How can we make sure that, start to finish, [there’s] a much more inclusive experience and there aren’t gaps in that experience?”

Correction 3/7/24: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect Starbucks's plans for growth.