Stop Starbucks Happy Hour due to COVID-19

Starbucks Happy Hours have become a well-known promotional event in the past few years for the company. Every few weeks from 2p-7p, customers can treat themselves with various offers that typically include getting a free drink or a drink at a discounted price. While these help boost store sales, they also put customers and Starbucks employees (partners) in danger during the COVID-19 pandemic. Starbucks relaunched Happy Hour on June 18th of this year when COVID-19 cases are beginning to increase again across the country.

As a fellow barista who worked Happy Hour on June 18th, I encountered hundreds of customers in the Drive-Thru and inside of our cafe who were not wearing masks, not social distancing, and going in and out of our restrooms constantly. With recent labor cuts due to the COVID-19 crisis, we as baristas don’t have the opportunity to wash our hands frequently or sanitize the cafe during these few hours of extreme business influx. In many stores, cafe’s went hours without being sanitized due to the high volume of customers and low levels of staffing. Furthermore, Happy Hour is now being implemented again while hazard pay for all Starbucks partners has ended, even though the risk of contracting COVID-19 has not gone away and has even increased.

We love our customers and communities but a global pandemic is not the time to be driving hundreds of extra customers to Starbucks stores to drive up profit and put your own customers and partners at risk. We as Starbucks partners insist that Happy Hour be cancelled for the remainder of 2020 across all US Starbucks locations and potentially delayed even longer into 2021 depending on the state of the pandemic within the U.S. Other promotional offers can be provided to Starbucks customers without the need to drive a huge amount of customers into stores at one specific time.

Right now, partner and customer safety needs to be the top priority, not BOGO Frappuccino's and caramel macchiatos.