This brief note was taped to the front door of the Starbucks store at the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley Sunday. The store remains closed, with no readily available explanations as to why.
UPDATE: The Starbucks at the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley reopened for business following its temporary closure on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020.
Note: This story has been updated with additional information provided by a spokesperson for Starbucks.
Many readers have reached out to Saucon Source to express concern about a closed coffee shop over the past couple days.
It’s not just any coffee shop, however. It’s the normally-busy Starbucks store at the center of the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley in Upper Saucon Township.
The store closed abruptly over the weekend, and as of Tuesday it remained closed for a third straight day.
On Sunday, a note with a frownie face drawn on it was taped to the store’s front door.
The note said, “Were (sic) closed all day today,” but offered no explanation for the closure or timeline for the store’s reopening.
Likewise, the Promenade Shops website lists the store as being “temporarily closed,” without explanation. The store is also listed as temporarily closed on its Google listing.
On Tuesday, Saucon Source reached out to the corporate communications department for Starbucks to request information about why the store is closed.
On Wednesday, a Seattle-based spokesperson confirmed that the decision to temporarily close the store was made after three of its employees experienced possible symptoms of COVID-19.
As of Wednesday at noon, two of the employees had received confirmation of negative test results while a third COVID-19 test result was still pending, the spokesperson said.
If the third test result is negative, the spokesperson said the Promenade Shops Starbucks will reopen this Friday, Sept. 11.
If it comes back positive, she said, the reopening date will be adjusted.
As of Wednesday there were no confirmed COVID-19 cases associated with the store.
The spokesperson said Starbucks takes a proactive approach to dealing with situations in which there is the potential for an employee to test positive for the virus.
“At the end of the day, all of our decisions are made based on partner and community safety,” she said.
Additional information about how Starbucks is working to help keep staff and customers safe during the COVID-19 pandemic may be found in the company’s At-a-Glance Guide.
Like most Starbucks locations throughout the area, the Promenade Shops store was closed for several months following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.
The stores began to reopen in stages over the spring and summer, as the state also began to reopen by loosening restrictions on dining and shopping.
The Promenade Shops Starbucks did not return to its pre-pandemic operating hours until Aug. 3.
Those hours were 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
According to the store listing on the Promenade Shops website, as of Aug. 24 the store’s hours were again changed to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.