The Starbucks stores around my way that have drive up windows are still open…
But lines are often around the block….
The stores without open windows are closed…
The company is seeking to reopen some of walk-in stores….
The workers concerns are the same ones that have been around the country as more and more businesses seek to re- open ….
When her Starbucks store in downtown Baltimore reopened last week, Kealea Foy saw too many reasons not to show up for work.
There was still a pandemic going on outside, with models projecting tens of thousands more deaths to hit the U.S. in the coming weeks. Foy didn’t trust customers to observe social distancing guidelines. Her mother is immunocompromised and lives in hospice care. If Foy were serving lattes, she wouldn’t be comfortable visiting her mother even when she’s finally allowed to.
The fact that she had another job to fall back on made it an easy call. Rather than take unpaid leave ― her only other option ― the barista told her boss she wouldn’t be coming back to work, ending her eight-year relationship with the coffee chain, a company she always saw as a decent employer with attractive perks.
“I wasn’t comfortable being pressured,” the 25-year-old said. “If everyone chooses to reopen so quickly and get back to normal when this is all very abnormal, I think we’ll have a surge in cases and this will all be for naught.”
As for Starbucks, “at the end of the day they are just a big business. They are a corporation and they are going to prioritize keeping the company going,” she said.
image….Harry How/Getty