Starbucks Set To Re-Open 85% Of Stores By Saturday: Here’s What Will Be Different

Starbucks (SBUX) will re-open 85% of its store with some restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s CEO, Kevin Johnson, revealed how the coffee chain will do it “responsibly.”

The company said the stores will be open by Saturday across the U.S., with 90% of stores to be open by early June. Stores will have modified operations as well as hours.

Starbucks said the store re-openings will be modeled after what the company has learned with its stores in China. The company has open more than 98% of its stores in the country “under revised protocols.” The same protocols will be used in the U.S., exceeding the standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Starbucks has now expanded its service beyond the drive-thru, adding mobile ordering for contactless pickup and delivery as well as curbside pickup and grab-and-go within its stores in some locations. The company is also shifting toward cashless transactions to avoid the handling of money during the COVID-19 pandemic and directing focus to its mobile app.

“Starbucks is proud to be an active participant in tens of thousands of communities battling this crisis and working toward a time of healing. After seven weeks of sheltering at home in the U.S., we have embraced an approach of monitoring, rapidly adapting to, and even shaping, the “now normal,”” Johnson said.

Shares of Starbucks stock were up 2.34% as of 3:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.