Starbucks to open store and training site in Englewood

Starbucks plans to open a store and training space next summer in Chicago's troubled Englewood neighborhood, part of its recently announced effort to put a dent in the dismal youth unemployment rate, informs UaPost with reference to Chicago Tribune.

The coffee chain's store, the first in the community, will open at 63rd and Halsted streets, adjacent to a Whole Foods expected to open next year, Starbucks announced Thursday.

It is one of 15 stores that the Seattle-based company plans to open in "diverse, low to median income urban communities across the U.S." by 2018, with each employing 20 to 25 people.

The announcement comes days after Starbucks spearheaded the launch of a big-business coalition that aims to hire 100,000 16- to 24-year-olds by 2018, targeting the 5.6 million "disengaged" young people in the U.S. who are neither working nor in school. The initiative expects to hire at least 1,000 youths and young adults in the Chicago area during the next 18 months, including at least 200 at an Aug. 13 job fair to kick off the campaign.

Each of the new stores will include an on-site training space where young people can learn customer service and retail skills based on the same training Starbucks baristas get. The programming, which will be free, will likely be run by neighborhood community groups and is not limited to Starbucks employees, Taylor said. The training space adds about 400 square feet to the retail store.

The goal is to cultivate the soft skills, like communication and punctuality, that retailers say are the No. 1 skill missing from the young talent pool.

The city last year approved $10.7 million in tax increment financing to support site preparation and development of the Whole Foods retail property where Starbucks will locate.

"In making this commitment to open in Englewood, Starbucks, like Whole Foods before it, sees the opportunity and revitalization occurring in one of Chicago's oldest neighborhoods," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. "This is further proof that when the public and private sectors come together to invest in communities, we can create new jobs and economic resources that will spur economic growth into the future."