Visual Merchandising at Starbucks

When it comes to presentation in retailing, the key objective is to implement a retailer’s strategy. With Starbucks being a service provider rather than a product merchandiser, its interior design mainly focuses on how customers want to experience the shop while they’re there… However, that’s not to say that Starbucks will avoid seducing its customers with their drinkware, coffee presses and gum.

Thus, here are three feature areas designed to get your attention at Starbucks:

- Image 1 portrays a cash wrap, also known as a point-of-purchase counter. Businesses of all types love utilizing this space which is located near the register to get you to buy those cheap impulse purchase items. 

- Image 2 makes use of the “decompression zone” which is the first 10 feet in which customers become adjusted to their new environment, these are typically located near the entrance.

- Image 3 showcases a freestanding display, these bad boys are often used for displaying a retailer’s newest and most exciting offerings.

P-O-P Display

Freestanding Display

Entrance Display

Labor Scheduling at Starbucks

To create an ethical workplace, Starbucks strives to schedule fair and compensate accordingly. The images below portray a handbook that newly-hired employees receive during training; this handbook highlights the guidelines Starbucks and its partners should follow every single day to ensure honest and moral success.

Employees are a company’s largest operating expense, and nothing is more critical than scheduling accordingly. Most managers in the United States rely on scheduling systems when it comes to professionally placing employees on an effective timetable because the software is simply more reliable in that it analyzes average sales, transactions and customer traffic better than a human. Unfortunately, mishaps happen and the software may underestimate how many workers will be required for a certain time period…

On page 11 of the handbook, a guideline states that Starbucks is committed to following all applicable wage and hour laws… Therefore if the store were to run out of scheduled employees, they simply cannot ask the present workers to stay past their scheduled shifts to cover the absence of others unless they are compensated for that said time.