What retailers can learn from Starbucks’ accessible store design

This month, the American coffee chain Starbucks opened the first store to be built using its Inclusive Spaces Framework at Union Market in Washington, DC.

The framework aims to bring more inclusive innovation in physical and digital spaces while enabling Starbucks to scale accessible design across its store portfolio.  

In a company press release, Katie Young, Starbucks’ senior vice president of store operations, said the framework “is central to our mission of connection and will lead to greater access for all”. 

In the same statement, Tony Coelho, a former US congressman and the primary author and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, commented that the opening the new store built with inclusive design elements is “a big moment” in the effort to make retail spaces more accessible and inclusive.

“We have to go beyond just what is required to put accessibility and inclusion first to ensure all people feel like they belong in community spaces.” 

While the new Starbucks in Washington, DC is the first store designed with an inclusive setup, it will not be the company’s last. 

This year, Starbucks plans to open over 600 new store locations, including licensed locations, to increase its US footprint by 4 per cent.

Moving forward, all newly built and renovated company-operated Starbucks stores in the US will incorporate the company’s framework, which will remain open-sourced and will be continually updated to improve upon accessible conditions.  

What does Starbucks’ Inclusive Space Framework entail?

Here are a few of the inclusive features that Starbucks will begin to incorporate in its physical and digital offerings moving forward:

• Updated point-of-sale (POS): The (POS) system is customised to be portable for improved ease of use with customers, has an adjustable angle stand for better visibility, an intuitive and customisable layout, offers voice assist and screen magnification, shows images of menu items to support language diversity and provides visual order confirmation to help ensure order accuracy.    

• Customer order status boards: Customer order status boards will offer customers visual updates on where their order is in the process, and when it’s ready to be picked up – providing multiple ways of communicating.  

• Power-operated doors: Wherever possible, doors to store entrances will include a longer vertical push button that is easier to activate from more heights and angles, designed to reduce the effort required to open the door.   

• Paths of travel: Store designs will create a continuous, unobstructed pedestrian path, allowing people with mobility aids such as wheelchairs to approach, enter, explore, enjoy, and exit the store with ease where possible. 

• Connection: Counters will be lower with overhangs to accommodate wheelchair access and support better communication when picking up food and beverages. 

What lessons can retailers learn from Starbucks’ efforts?

Starbucks isn’t the only retailer taking steps to be more accessible.

In November last year, big-box chain store Walmart implemented sensory-friendly hours at all stores in the US and Puerto Rico. From 8-10 am every day, lights will be dimmed and other aspects of its store operations will be modified.

However, Starbucks is one of the largest US retail chains to go beyond simply complying with the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Act, which includes regulations like having accessible bathrooms or entrances that can accommodate mobility aids such as wheelchairs. 

Penny Weber, CEO and founder of The Shapes United, the first Australian adaptive fashion label to be sold at Walmart, pointed out to Inside Retail that there are many “blockers” in retail environments that may impact people with a wide range of needs. “It could be there is no accessible dressing room for them [the consumer], they experience sensory overload from the sounds, smells and lights of the environment,” she said.

“The one that I find fascinating is that the physical layout inhibits people being able to move around freely with floor stock and signage in inconvenient areas,” she added. 

An estimated one in four Americans has some form of disability, and there are both societal and economic reasons for retailers to invest in inclusive stores. A 2018 report conducted by AIR, a behavioural and social science research and evaluation organisation, revealed that the total after-tax disposable income for working-age people with disabilities is about US$490 billion, with discretionary income of around US$21 billion.

As Weber stated, “Creating clear thoroughfares, reducing stairs, and improving dressing room facilities would improve the shopping experiences for many,” not just for individuals across the disability spectrum.

The post What retailers can learn from Starbucks’ accessible store design appeared first on Inside Retail Australia.