Imagine getting your temperature checked at the door before picking up your latte. That was just part of the system implemented at thousands of Starbucks locations across China earlier this year when coronavirus concerns led the world’s largest coffee chain to temporarily shut down more than half of its 4,300 shops there, leading to a steep decline in sales.
Now Starbucks has reopened the vast majority of its shops in China, as new cases of COVID-19 are on the decline there. And it’s sharing some of the details behind the processes it put in place, some of which are crossing over to the United States.
Starbucks also said that to date, “there are no perceptible signs of COVID-19 impact on our U.S. business.” The U.S. is its biggest market, accounting for about 65 percent of revenue in the recent fiscal first quarter.
In China, Starbucks came up with a “contactless experience” that worked like this: When customers order via the app, they get a special code to present when picking up. "During the COVID-19 crisis," a company post reported, the code was "changed to inspiring messages, such as 'Hang in there' and 'Tomorrow will be spring.'” When the customer arrived at the store, an employee waiting at the entrance would take their temperature and check them in. Then, another employee wearing gloves would put their purchase on the mobile order and pay station near the front of the store, and move away. Then, the customer would go to the station, pick up the drink, and depart.
Starbucks also says it paid its employees—in Starbucks-speak, they’re all called partners—while the stores were closed. And it says it expanded insurance benefits for its workers and their families.
Now, as COVID-19 cases have risen in the U.S., the company is taking extra precautions in its home market. Employees are being told to sanitize heavily touched areas regularly, “ideally every eight minutes, but no more than 30,” the company wrote in an online post.