Last Saturday was a monumental day in the timeline of Searcy’s coffee shop history. Students, Searcy citizens and parents in town for family weekend stood in line at the new Starbucks at Legacy Park to order their favorite drink.
The Starbucks at Legacy Park had an “invite only” day on Friday to give employees extra practice, followed by an official opening day on Saturday. The grand opening attracted a large crowd and provided the familiarity of the Starbucks chain that is usually accessible in students’ hometowns. The opening weekend went well, according to Gina Grabill, manager of the Legacy Park Starbucks.
“The weekend went great. The team worked hard. There were hundreds of customers and it was two or three times busier than we anticipated,” Grabill said. “Starbucks is an exciting new place that has opened up for the community and the students.”
The employees were able to practice on the day before they opened by inviting specific people to receive free drinks and this helped the employees have a trial run of what a real shift would look like.
“The faculty members got invitations to come periodically throughout the afternoon to help the employees practice,” Grabill said.
The Legacy Park Starbucks accepts DCB and is currently working on setting up the system that will accept Starbucks gift cards. Some students have expressed the advantage of being able to use their DCB accounts.
“It is simpler and more convenient to be able to use DCB at Starbucks,” said Starbucks employee, Zac Gill. “I think that will be a huge draw for Harding students.”
A large room connected to the Starbucks has the potential to be a popular place for students to gather and study. A small stage in the corner will eventually be set up with audio/visual equipment, but Grabill said she does not know when that project will be complete. The stage will eventually provide opportunity for musical and entertainment performances.
“I’m really glad they have the big room in the back and can’t wait for music to be performed there because I never get to hear the music playing through the sound system when there is a long line,” said Gill.
According to Gill, this weekend was not too overwhelming or stressful for employees and was actually a fun experience.
“I’m really thankful that Aramark did a good job of hiring fun coworkers for me,” Gill said. “We have a really unique team that covers all sorts of people from different social circles.”
