Community Corner

Starbucks Expected to Reopen Late December

This story was updated on 12.13.12.

Starbucks patrons can expect to once again order a pike coffee or pumpkin spice latte at the company’s locations in Long Beach and Island Park sometime later this month, after both stores were devastated during Hurricane Sandy. 

Starbucks in Long Beach, at 85 E. Park Ave., and the store at 4507 Austin Blvd. in Island Park, are undergoing extensive reconstruction and renovations and are expected to open by mid- or late-December. “I’m going to say it’s probably going to be late December,” Haley Drage, a spokesperson for Starbucks, told Patch on Thursday.

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Drage said that both stores suffered considerable flood damage during the storm, which have made renovations take longer than normal, she said. “We want to make sure that everything is up and running and everything is safe for our employees and customers who come in and use them,” she added about the restoration efforts.

Meanwhile, Starbucks employees from both stores have worked shifts at other locations throughout Nassau County, including Oceanside and Westbury.

A barista from the Long Beach store told Patch on Thursday that Starbucks sent a text message to employees that informed them the store on the barrier island is expected to reopen Dec. 30. A South Shore resident, he said he takes a bus to a store in the middle of the island, where he has worked in the wake of the storm, but the extra travel doesn't bother him. 

“It is what it is,” said the barista, who declined to give his name because he isn't authorized to speak to media. “I’m the type of person who bears through it. It’s really not that bad. In the end, we’re not Staten Island and we’re not Rockaway.”

He noted that Starbucks has provided employees impacted by the storm “catastrophe pay.” He didn’t reveal the amount but called it “a nice chunk of change.”

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