The others are in Chicago, Milwaukee, Queens in New York City, and Phoenix. It also will remodel a store in Phoenix.
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The openings are part of a previously announced effort to hire 10,000 disadvantaged young people, the Seattle-based chain said.
At least five stores are expected to open up in 2016.
“As companies in America sort of grappling with issues, I think one of the big ones that we’re starting to grapple with is this notion of disengaged youth”, said Starbucks chief community officer Blair Taylor.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s hard to imagine a worse ending to this initiative than its “Race Together” campaign, which involved slapping the slogan “Race Together” on coffee cups and encouraging baristas to awkwardly discuss race with customers. One of the takeaways from those conversations, Taylor said, was the need to take action against inequality.
“We want the stores to be economically viable”, Taylor said. “We’re pivoting now”.
Each of the new Starbucks locations, under this initiative, will have an on-site training space where young people can learn customer service and retail skills, based on the same training Starbucks employees receive. The programming, which will be free, will likely be run by neighborhood community groups and is not limited to Starbucks employees, Taylor said. “It is in our best interest to invest in them at this stage in their development”.
The stores are part of Starbucks’ pledge announced earlier this year to hire 10,000 “opportunity youth” – defined as those aged 16 to 24 who don’t have jobs and aren’t enrolled in school – over the next three years. This Starbucks location is unique in that it will focus on hiring and training underserved young people.
Each new Starbucks store will hire 20-25 employees from the neighborhood. Englewood, where 47 percent of residents live below the poverty line and the crime rate is high, also has a vibrant nonprofit sector and an investment by Whole Foods in what has long been a food desert. To accomplish this, Starbucks is donating its proprietary methodology and training expertise and partnering with established local not-for-profits already involved in the local jobs skills education field to ensure the sustainability and integration of the program into existing local efforts.
“We are trying to pick locations where there is at least the beginning of a groundswell of economic activity that we can be synergized with”, Taylor said. The company will also work with minority women and contractors for the design of these new locations.
Starbucks officials confirmed that the store will be located on West Florissant Avenue, about 1.5 miles from the QuikTrip that was burned down last August during the early days of unrest in Ferguson following the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer.
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It seems like there’s a Starbucks on every corner in most Chicago neighborhoods, but the coffee giant is about to set up shop in one of the most unsafe neighborhoods in the country. “We want to be part of the solution in these communities and help create a sustainable future for those who may be looking for a second chance”.
