Today, I spent time listening to both raw and inspiring stories, creative ideas and new perspectives from partners from San Antonio during our latest collaboration session. These sessions are important for helping inform the work required for our Reinvention at Starbucks; work that will take shape over time and continue be created together – across our stores, our roasting plants and the Starbucks Support Center – between each of us and also with the customers and stakeholders we serve.
Today, we find ourselves in a position where we must modernize and transform the Starbucks experience in our stores and recreate an environment that is relevant, welcoming and safe, and where we uplift one another with dignity, respect and kindness. We need to reinvent Starbucks for the future. And to be successful, it will take our collective courage to begin again. Read more in a letter to U.S. partners about the next Bold Moves for Reinvention and principles for a new partnership at Starbucks.
Starbucks China partners (employees) welcome customers back in Shanghai today as COVID dine-in restrictions ease. Each of the 800 Starbucks stores in Shanghai opened with our signature ritual of a coffee tasting— marking another milestone in the company’s COVID journey, and the gradual return to normalcy in one of the most vibrant and dynamic cities in the world.
I am leaving DC tonight in awe after having the privilege of visiting stores and meeting with some of our most passionate green apron partners.
Yesterday I joined nine recent Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP) graduates and heard their emotional and inspirational stories of overcoming barriers and achieving their educational and career goals. The time together reminded me of exactly why we co-created the SCAP program in 2014. I have so much pride in the nearly 9,000 partners who have graduated since then.
Several of us also had the opportunity to visit our Anacostia Community Store where our partners have created a warm and inviting environment for the neighborhood. The store opened in May 2020 and recently celebrated two-years of partnering with neighbors like Children of Mine to create needed opportunities for the community. And there is a ‘must-see’ mural by local artist Aneikan Udofia that highlights local legend Chuck Brown and well-known abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
My love of Starbucks and our reason for being has never been more meaningful to me. These moments of connection this week have served as important reminders of what we have built together at Starbucks for our partners, customers and communities—and the opportunity to continue co-creating for our future. Thank you, D.C. partners. Very grateful to have had this time with you. #ToBeAPartner
This has been a banner week for Starbucks partners as we reopened 600 of our 900 stores in Shanghai. Partners from the Shanghai Roastery were met with ecstatic customers in lines that stretched out onto Nanjing West Road. After more than two months of lockdown, these reopenings are a triumph and a testament to the resilience of our partners and a great sign for the future of the Starbucks brand in China.
We set out to restore our partners trust and belief in Starbucks by listening to their hopes, frustrations and ideas. Today, we announced significant investments in the partner experience, inspired by what they had to say. It is just the first step in building a different kind of company together. #ToBeAPartner
Thank you to the partners in stores and roasting plants across the country who shared your hopes and ideas for Starbucks future with us this week—and to every partner who has made your voice heard. I am truly inspired by your commitment to co-creating our next chapter together. #ToBeAPartner
We're going to make promises that are real and we're going to solve the problems that exist in your stores to give you a better opportunity to succeed. #ToBeAPartner
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In my first week back as Starbucks ceo, I met with partners around the country for collaboration sessions to get underneath the challenges in the company that need to be addressed. These sessions have not been without efforts at disruption by union organizers. During a session in Long Beach, a partner captured a raw moment in which I explain what happened in the middle of a memorial for a deceased partner in Chicago. It was upsetting. I go on to explain the personal responsibility I feel as I return to reinvent the company I founded – one where our people are never left behind but rather always propelled forward. #ToBeAPartner
I love Starbucks. As I return as ceo, my commitment is first and foremost to our partners. Together, we’ll design the next Starbucks — an evolution of our company…deep with purpose…where we each have agency and where we work together to create a positive impact in the world. Onward, together.
2018: I gathered with Starbucks partners on Jun 4, 2018 after announcing my decision to step down from my role as executive chairman. I left with great humility, great appreciation, and great respect for our partners, and all the people we represent. Starbucks has always been in me, and I will always been in service of our partners.
2014: Our first Starbucks Reserve® Roastery opened in Seattle…it was the realization of an idea I’d had five years earlier to take customers on a magical carpet ride with an immersive coffee experience.
2016: More than 30 years after I had first walked Italy’s cobblestone streets, I returned to the city to announce Starbucks would be opening a Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Milan in 2018.
2017: The next year, we opened our Roastery in Shanghai. By then, we had more than 330,00 partners and 28,000 stores around the world – and our best was yet to come.
