Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
How Will the Starbucks Inclusive Spaces Framework Change Retail?
Starbucks, the leading coffee company, is rolling out a groundbreaking initiative to make its stores more accessible across the United States. With statistics estimating that one in six adults has a disability, this comes at a welcome time. The new approach, termed the Inclusive Spaces Framework, aims to enhance the store experience for all, including partners, customers, and communities.
Partnering with a diverse community of customers, partners, and accessibility experts, Starbucks developed scalable solutions for retail spaces. The Inclusive Spaces Framework will now be integrated into all newly built and renovated company-operated stores in the U.S., marking a significant milestone in Starbucks’ quest for accessibility and inclusion.
The inaugural store adopting the Inclusive Spaces Framework opened its doors on Feb. 16 in Washington, D.C. Located at Union Market, this store serves as a blueprint for future Starbucks locations, showcasing a range of innovative features designed to enhance accessibility.
Katie Young, senior vice president of store operations, emphasized Starbucks’ commitment to inclusivity, stating that the company is dedicated to expanding independence, choice, and ease for everyone. The first store adopting this framework is located in Washington, D.C., and showcases a host of accessible features.
The Inclusive Spaces Framework introduces various physical and digital enhancements to Starbucks stores, including:
- Acoustics and Lighting Optimization: Enhancements in acoustics and lighting for a more inclusive sensory experience. Stores feature noise-reduction materials and glare-minimizing lighting.
- Customer Order Status Boards: Visual updates on order progress and readiness for pickup, offering diverse communication channels.
- Inclusive Equipment Design: Starbucks Clover Vertica™ brewer is designed for accessibility, featuring larger protruding dials and buttons, with visual and haptic feedback.
- Portable POS System: Customized, portable POS system with adjustable stand, voice assist, and multilingual menu item images.
- Power-Operated Doors: Entrance doors equipped with easier-to-activate, vertically extended push buttons, reducing opening effort.
- Seamless Paths of Travel: Unobstructed pedestrian paths for easy store navigation, with accessible wayfinding and open sightlines.
- Connection Enhancement: Lower counters with wheelchair access overhangs to facilitate communication between customers and partners during pickup.
Tony Coelho, former U.S. congressman and advocate for disability rights, hailed Starbucks’ efforts, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing accessibility and inclusion in public spaces.
Disability Accessibility in Retail Shopping for Clothes
For many years now, there have been significant challenges that many disabled individuals face when it comes to shopping for clothing, both in physical stores and online. It emphasizes the importance of accessibility and inclusivity in retail environments. Here are some key points and suggestions that have been shared across social media:
- Accessible Fitting Rooms: Larger fitting rooms with accommodations such as hooks, grab bars, and more seats can greatly benefit wheelchair users and those who need assistance trying on clothes.
- Lower Checkout Counters: High checkout counters pose difficulties for wheelchair users, so lowering them or providing alternative accessible counters can improve the shopping experience.
- Clear Sales Floors: Ensuring that sales floors are clear of obstacles like dropped clothes or product boxes can make navigation easier for shoppers using mobility devices.
- At-Home Try-Ons: Offering at-home try-ons for online shoppers can reduce the frustration of purchasing clothes that don’t fit well and simplify the return process.
- Inclusive Advertising: Featuring disabled models in advertisements and online stores promotes inclusivity and provides a more realistic representation of the available clothing options.
- Detailed Item Descriptions: Providing detailed descriptions of items can assist blind and low-vision shoppers who use text-to-speech apps or screen readers, enabling them to make more informed purchases.
The Economic Value of Inclusivity
Businesses are missing out on a significant economic opportunity by failing to adequately serve the disability community. A recent study by the Valuable 500 revealed that over 50% of disabled individuals encounter obstacles when accessing content and products, with only 2% feeling accurately represented in media and marketing.
The problem lies in the inadequate steps taken by businesses to address these issues. Superficial efforts such as basic accessibility compliance or token representation are insufficient. What’s needed is a profound cultural shift in how disability representation is approached across all aspects of organizations.
The Valuable 500 emphasizes three essential pillars for fostering inclusive representation: Accessible Experiences, Accurate Representation, and Authentic Narratives.
Accessible Experiences are vital for reaching the disabled community. Companies must design products and services with inclusivity in mind, involving disabled individuals in the development process. Accessibility should be integrated from the beginning, leading to benefits for all users.
Authentic Narratives go beyond stereotypes to tell genuine stories that resonate with disabled audiences. By partnering with disabled storytellers and advocates, businesses can create campaigns that challenge societal biases and foster a more inclusive market.
Companies like Lancôme and Procter & Gamble are leading the way in prioritizing inclusive representation. Through initiatives like the HAPTA range and the #Shift20 campaign, they’re setting new standards for accessibility and diversity in their industries.
However, achieving genuine inclusion requires a comprehensive approach that involves disabled individuals at every level of decision-making. Platforms like “Making Space” are connecting businesses with overlooked talent pools, promoting equitable hiring practices, and driving cultural change.
Inclusive and authentic representation isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also a smart business strategy. By embracing diversity and accessibility, companies can tap into a vast market and pave the way for a more inclusive future.
Discussion Questions
How might the Starbucks Inclusive Spaces Framework set a new standard for retail inclusivity and inspire other businesses to prioritize accessibility in their physical and digital spaces, and what potential challenges could arise in implementing similar initiatives across diverse retail environments?
Considering the economic value of inclusivity highlighted by the Valuable 500, what strategies can businesses employ to authentically represent and cater to the diverse needs of the disability community, and how can embracing accessibility and diversity not only enhance societal inclusion but also drive innovation and profitability within industries such as cosmetics and consumer goods?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Lisa Goller
B2B Content Strategist
Gary Sankary
Retail Industry Strategy, Esri
The new store has a lot of features which are, to anyone with a disability, good common sense but which, sadly, are all too frequently overlooked in retail. Seemingly simple things, like magnification on digital menus and lower counters for wheelchair users, make a whole world of difference. And a digital status board in addition to calling out a name when an order is ready is useful not just to the hard of hearing, but to anyone who fears they misheard. Equally, noise reduction through improved insulation is beneficial all around. I think this is a great step forward and hopefully more retailers will look into these kinds of improvements.
I applaud Starbucks on their Inclusive Spaces Framework, and I have no doubt that their leadership will encourage others. Whether it ultimately sets a new standard or not is a separate question. Making their store environment more accessible will not only make it easier for customers with disabilities, but potentially for all customers. That said, there will be a significant hard cost to add these new store features, and that’s often where these initiatives get stalled. Better access and service levels should translate into higher sales, and if there is a quantifiable lift in sales as a result of these changes, the decision to rollout will be a relatively easy one.
While Starbucks should be given credit for “doing the right thing” – even if it is, to a certain extent, required by law – I don’t see a reason they should be singled out for plaudits.(The efforts of other retailers, such as WalMart, have already been covered here). The idea that this will change retail is, of course, hyperbole.
Starbucks’ Inclusive Spaces Framework makes a social impact with store design standards that make everyone truly feel welcome.
By inviting people with disabilities to the table and learning from their real-life expertise, Starbucks gains insights on how to deliver superior customer and employee experiences. Starbucks will gain an edge by providing accessible, inviting spaces while inspiring rivals to invest in inclusivity, too.
All of these things are positives and not sure how anyone could argue otherwise. Just makes sense to make your store available to as many shoppers as possible by making it easy for all.
It is suitable for Starbucks to recognize some of the less common barriers that affect their customers with disabilities. After the ADA was passed, many retailers made significant changes to their store layouts to accommodate customers with mobility challenges who need more space around racks and fixtures. But, in hindsight, it feels like things stopped there. Today, we understand more about the challenges people face navigating an environment that most of us take for granted. Kudos to Starbucks for taking the lead on this. It’s great for their customers, and the awareness it will bring, I suspect, will have some broader implications for the market.
At the risk of being provocative, I would like to see the numbers. Emotionally, I agree with the effort to make spaces (any public space) more accessible. No one who is wheel chair bound or otherwise should be at a disadvantage. And yet….this feels like a bit of corporate virtue signaling, and I wonder if it is going to make a difference. Smaller things might matter more, like larger print menus that you do not have to link to a QR code on the smartphone that anyone who is elderly does not really know how to use. But a change like that does not make any headlines.
And, regarding disabilities in general, since we have an epidemic of obesity in this country, perhaps Starbucks could make a difference by discontinuing some or all of their 1,000 calorie drinks on offer. THAT would be impressive, at least to me.
Well, no one can argue with Starbucks’ good intentions. But some of these “inclusion” elements – such as Acoustics and Lighting Optimization and Customer Order Status Boards – don’t seem particularly focused on the disabled. Others such as the Seamless Paths of Travel sound great, unless of course you have ever been inside a Starbucks where at peak hours it’s difficult to walk in any direction let alone navigate a wheelchair in a straight line. And then there is the issue of the customers. At my local Starbucks there are two tables clearly marked as seating for the disabled. They are, of course, permanently occupied by an interchangeable parade of yoga toned, able-bodied, hipsters who use their broad surfaces to set up complex personal digital encampments. All of which is to say the Devil is, as always, in the execution. And, finally, as others have mentioned, other retailers are already accommodating a diverse customer community. And NO Starbucks is no where close to leading a new standard for retail inclusivity. High marks to them for finally doing the right thing, but no Gold Star for innovation.
The Starbucks Inclusive Spaces Framework introduces accessible features in stores, like accessible fitting room, lower checkout counters, at-home-try-ons and visual order updates, setting a new standard for retail inclusivity. By partnering with diverse communities, Starbucks inspires other businesses to prioritize accessibility. This framework showcases how simple changes can enhance the shopping experience, encouraging a shift toward inclusivity in both physical and digital spaces across the retail industry.
This commitment fosters societal inclusion, but more importantly, it drives innovation and profitability. Embracing diversity and accessibility in industries like cosmetics and consumer goods taps into a vast market. Companies like Lancôme and Procter & Gamble set examples, showing that inclusive strategies not only reflect social responsibility but also lead to a more diverse and profitable future by meeting the diverse needs of consumers.
Starbucks is making great advances in becoming more sensitive to people with disabilities, but they cannot forget the standards which brought them here: Coffee, community and chat. Starbucks needs to focus on getting better coffee out faster. Waiting for longer periods of time for your order is still a major primary issue that is the foundation of any successful QSR. The store environment also needs to focus on better, cleaner, bathrooms that are cleaned more frequently, and are more accessible (none of which was mentioned here). Also, having to wait to ask for a key to access a bathroom is inexcusable. Post a readily available code, inside Starbucks, so that everyone can easily use the facilities without having to wait to ask for the key, and then having to wait to use the facilities. Common sense is still missing here and Starbucks needs to start using theirs.
Finally….Starbucks Inclusive Spaces bring inclusivity and accessibility all in one space. While this is worthy of accolades for Starbucks, it still stings a bit that it has taken this long; not just for Starbucks but all of retail has a way to go in this space.
The problem is, most original designs only integrate basic/minimum ADA requirements. There is a good thought that inclusivity and accessibility should be factored in from the start but as long as ‘better’ accessibility starts out being planned for V2 or V20, V1 will always fall short of providing a fully equitable experience .
I’d like to imagine a world where more inclusive and accessible spaces are the norm and not long-awaited upgrades. Regardless, Starbucks efforts are welcomed today and should motivate other retailers to take action sooner vs later.