001[Music] wow hello and welcome to Around the Clock I am your host galanda Greaves this is a special edition Starbucks is finally opened here in Ashland after years of contemplation and uh the time they had to spend in front of our planning board it is Friday July 26th and we are here to attend the ribbon cutting available to the public as of Saturday so let's check it out welcome everyone um good afternoon on this gorgeous day um where we're celebrating a wonderful opening um of Starbucks I'm Beth Reynolds I'm the economic development director for the town of Ashland um and I am so happy um to welcome all of you to the official ribbon cutting of the first and only now Starbucks in Ashland finally long [Music] awaited um it's so great to see all
002of the support from the community from the board s and the groups and committees um that have all worked together to help make this happen um a lot of our staff is here from our community development team that also worked really hard um with the Starbucks team with the developer um and to make this all a reality so this is a great day for Ashlin we are so excited to have Starbucks um join our business Community um um there's going to be a bunch of speaking today that I'm going to turn it off to um but thank you for coming welcome we are gonna um listen to a few um talks and then we're going to do our official ribbon cutting and open up the first store so Michael I'm going to introduce Michael Herbert
003our um Town managers Ashlin town man thanks Beth thank you um and gosh yes it it seems like it's been a while but we're finally here we finally got to this point and uh congratulations everybody I think uh as Beth mentioned this has been a long time coming and you know so many people worked really really hard to get us to this point and uh you know first of all I'd like to thank uh you know Starbucks and Greg for you know being willing to come here and make this investment here it's really really important to us and I mean here we have a state-of-the-art store I mean this is this is incredible stuff I also want to thank um you know our planning board who worked really really hard with uh Starbucks to you
004know create a site I think this is just a wonderful site the way they they worked it and and it's a beautiful beautiful site that adds to you know the aesthetic value here in town uh also our select board uh was involved in this and helping and make this happen and then you know also our wonderful staff uh Beth Peter matchak Becca uh sofhia Evan uh Becca Navaro you know I keep on forgetting we have two beccas now uh so so Becca squared and others really worked really hard to get to this point and um I think this is a huge huge accomplishment for Ashland and you know I just you know reflect on this when I when I got here I mean almost everybody that would come up and talk to me and say
005hey can we get a Starbucks in town you know have any of you heard that you know and you know you have to explain look it's not necessarily our decision you know Starbucks needs to see that you know it's it's worth the investment and that it's going to be supported um but you know and we hope all of our businesses feel supported and we've worked really really hard uh especially Beth to get to this point but you know having a Starbucks here really does bring an element you know a certain panach if you will to to town that a lot of towns uh strive for and and here we are and you know one of the things that I was thinking about is just again reflecting on the last 10 years you know we had
006this Vision 10 years ago about creating a community that was a great balance of open space and development and you know that had events that celebrated our community community character and who we are and a town that was worth investing in you know you know understanding that we had to pay a price to achieve the goals that we had set out to do and that we were worth Ashlin was worth investing in and paying that price and we're starting to see that we're starting to see that with the investments in downtown and 126 and some of our community development projects like the Riverwalk and uh the Valentine project and you know some of the investments in staff that we've made in our departments you know we've come a long ways uh just in terms of
007infrastructure and Community Development and Yolanda where where's Yolanda where are you oh right there Yolanda so you know we were just talking about the fact that you know towns have to make that public investment to Spur and encourage the private investment that happens and um everybody that I've talked to that's that's been willing to make that investment including you know Greg and Starbucks has said you know what if you weren't doing the things that you were doing in town we wouldn't be here so I think we all should give ourselves a round of applause for that uh just that Collective work so I should have started I should have led with um our Starbucks crew so Brad is the store manager here um and Connor is the district manager he serves over 12 communities so
00812 different stores right 12 different stores so yes so it's great so I should have introduced them first my apologies so next up um from senator Spa's office Susan nickel and from our State Rep uh Jack Lewis please come on up uh but it is so great to be here and be surrounded by so many folks uh Beth you you've done it again uh like not every Community has Beth I those of us who spent a lot of time in Ashland maybe don't realize that uh but to have someone who goes out proactively uh to bring businesses into town and then supports businesses in every way that she can uh is just remarkable and this is a testimony to everything you've done uh Michael You' reflected on your your 10 years as Town manager and
009I think you know this is sort of a uh cherry on top of the the cupcake of all the progress we've had here uh but it's really you and the select board Yolanda Joe and others who have managed to find a way to celebrate ashlin's past without living in it honoring it while also boldly moving forward and nothing says that quite like a Starbucks uh and I love a good ribbon cutting but this is the first one where there's been bottomless caffeinated beverages so um I'm going to stop there so I can get back in line uh but I have a official citation uh from the house uh signed by myself as your State Rep here in Ashland uh and then the speaker of the house as well uh I'll read a little bit the
010Commonwealth of Massachusetts the House of Representatives be it hereby known to all that the Massachusetts House of Representatives offers its sincerest congratulations to Starbucks and recognition of your grand opening of your new Ashlin location uh s the entire membership extends its very best wishes and expresses the hope for Future Good Fortune and continued success in all Endeavors given on this 26th day of July congratulations I can never improve on Jack's poetic speeches so I'm not going to I'm just going to read a citation as all of you know Senate President spilka is an Ashlin resident and reminds us all all the time how much she loves being an ashin resident so she wanted to make sure that I represented her here today uh thank you you're doing a great job better than I did for
011you he's trying to take my vantage J okay uh Commonwealth of Massachusetts state senate official citation be it known that the Massachusetts Senate hereby extends its congratulations to Starbucks in recognition of the joyous occasion of the grand opening of Ashen Starbucks location and then has a little bit more blah blah blah that um uh that the Massachusetts Senate extends its best wishes and it's signed by your Senator Karen spilka and by the Senate President who is also Karen spilka terrific thanks Adam Adam saxs so Adam saak is our fearless leader for the Ashlin Business Association um he's gonna take it away uh thank you Beth um on behalf of the Ashland Business Association um we are so excited to have Starbucks uh here in Ashlin on a personal note um the ladies in my life
012uh my wife and my daughters Abby and Ashley they've been waiting for this moment for for so long I can my wife um I remember saying that why can't why can't Starbucks why can we why can't we have a Starbucks in Ashlin and you know here we are um I have my uh venty um black iced coffee um I thought I'd live on the edge but I I just went back back to the go-to um but we're just uh we're so excited ashon Business Association our our goal is to to help promote a healthy business environment and uh certainly we have a great partnership with the town Michael Beth uh Beth also serves as a board member um on the as Business Association Along With Dick Bennett dick um who's our Treasurer uh Peter Chisum
013um our uh vice president soon president um David Rondo and um we're just so excited to have the opportunity to to to um to promote a business like Starbucks here in Ashlin um we have a little certificate here with a piece of the ribbon uh and I'll just read it to you the certificate of recognition this certificate of recognition is awarded to Starbucks in honor of their official ribbon cutting today the ash Business Association extends it's very best wishes for continued success welcome to Ashlin thank you and then from one great leader to another I am going to ask um Yolanda Greaves she's the chair of our select board to come and say a few [Applause] words thank you Beth I also want to recognize two other members of our five member board are here
014Claudia Bennett is here and Joe manani is here um I know Brandy is off and as I believe Makita is so as many other people have said for Ashland this is a very exciting time to have Starbucks come to our town uh from a personal me for personally for me it's I now don't have to go to hopkington or Southboro or Framingham to get my Starbucks and then of course there's that other part in the back of my head goes oo meal sales tax um we don't all want to say that but it's partly true so I want to thank you both for the work you've done and welcome to Ashland I've already heard that you're starting to make connections and are going to be supporting our community moving forward which is what we all
015try to Foster right the goal is to bring businesses in and have them become part of our community they've worked very well with our conservation agent with our planning board with so many different staff here in town to make a Starbucks that we can feel proud of here in Ashland but we hope that Starbucks as well will feel welcomed and comfortable in our community so on that note I'd like to welcome Brad and Connor up if either of you would like to say something thank you so great to have you and uh and welcome with the first friends and family and like first few drinks uh of our store here um I'm Connor I'm the district manager supports Metro West Boston so I support the 12 stores from Welsley through Southboro um and I'm a
016nine-year partner with Starbucks and so what I'll share is a little bit of my journey um and what like truly fills my cup here in Starbucks and why this store fills into that um so the three things that I always walk away with his impact um and it's impact to our partners it's impact to our customers um and it's impact to our community um and so today we get to open a store with some of the be best technology we have in Starbucks um the best experience um we get to welcome a new team of Partners into this store um and we get to make their life easier uh by some of the technology and great things that we have in the store um and then two um is around the customer base um and
017so for all of you we get to welcome you customers in um into this store and create an awesome experience around coffee around connection uh and deliver a great third place uh environment for all of you uh and then Community we've already started it today but uh engaging in the community engaging uh in our nonprofits that are here um and this is day one um and so excited for the ABA and all the other nonprofits that joined us today um and the continued relationship that we get to have moving forward um so I walk away with those three things and the word impact uh that truly fills My Cup today so thank you all for joining um thank you all for welcoming us here to Ashland really appreciate it uh I'm Brad I'm the store
018manager and uh welcome Ashlin uh we're really really excited to finally have an opportunity to uh bring this great experience to the to the community um you know one of the things that attracted me to to Starbucks was the fact that you got a big organization that really makes a small town feel small right at the end of the day I think one of the things that's that really impressed upon me about Starbucks is that we we provide an opportunity for people to sit down and connect again right and and it really brings the sense of community together so we can all um learn and share our experiences with one another and build stronger relationships and obviously pay it forward to the to the Greater Community at large um so I I personally uh want
019to thank um the Commonwealth uh certainly the uh Ashlin Business Association uh my special relationship ship with Beth Reynolds um Beth and I met four weeks ago and uh we it was a we talk about connection a lot in Starbucks and it was through that connection that this this event came together um she went out of her way to introduce me to a lot of people in the community uh Greenup ashin who we're going to participate with and we're going to do some wonderful things together with our partners I also want to thank the the greater uh Starbucks team of Partners uh we wouldn't be here and and Kenley [Applause] we wouldn't be here without their support um was a rough week did but we did it and we're here and I can tell you
020a lot of sweat a lot of Tears a lot of equity in the last couple of months last several months uh kind of getting everybody up to speed through the onboarding process I've got store managers here I have uh you know members of the uh the Starbucks team in Framingham uh members of the the Sherwood team I've got members of the Shoppers World team so Gita Ariel Vicky Alex um my gosh who else is here all my partners that are on the team that have been here training um I I really want to celebrate and thank the body of work you've done you've really embraced the learning culture we were here yesterday learning all the new technology so I would ask for your patience we're going to get it but nonetheless uh I'm just really
021elated to be here I'm really elated to be the store manager representing the Greater Community of Ashen I've grown up in this area so I can totally relate I live right down the street in Upton so I'm a local and I've been a local my whole life uh so welcome and uh let's get to know each other over a cup thank you awesome I think it's really um I think it's really important to know that this this building actually came in so many stages so Greg Salvatore is the owner of the property he brought starbu Starbucks in another team built the bu building another team decorated the building and then Brad's team came in this week just a day or two of training um to figure out all of the new system so I mean
022it really has been a great work in progress so it's great to celebrate so let's cut a ribbon I think and make it official um so we're just going to have everybody sort of back like kind of scooch over here and back up we are speaking with Jean Walker she is President chair we have a group we know in charge she's with Greenup Ashland and while we were here at the opening today what was the news that we found out Jean the news that we found out oh that that they are going to be a sponsor Starbucks is going to be a sponsor of the green up ashin and we've never had a budget so it's wonderful to have some backing for us so Starbucks is just opening and they've already promised to support and
023be a community partner here in Ashland how exciting is this for you and your group it's wonderful because we've been we've been here for over 20 years I'm one of the founding members and um we've always had to kind of at the last minute hope and pray and keep our fingers crossed so we got enough money to buy all the trash bags and keep our website going and get everything done that we need to so this is going to help help us a whole lot well it's very exciting thanks for taking a few minutes to chat with us okay you're fine thank you thanks Jean okay we are now speaking with Tatiana Pope she is an Ashland resident and she's also now working here at the new Starbucks Tatiana what does it mean for you
024to be able to live and work in the same Community um it's an honestly it's a wonderful experience I've always had to travel far for work you know what I mean and now it's in my own community so I'm very excited uh to connect with new people and be able to get closer to my community as well because I I moved here not too long ago about a year ago and there's not too many people that I know because of um I didn't work in my hometown so now I'll be able to connect and I'm very excited about that well I think you should get a name tag that says Tatiana Ashland yes right you go you go to different hotels in Las Vegas and they always have the hometown so that people know that
025you live here in town yeah yes we actually have a couple partners that are actually um res um residents of Ashland so you know it brings us all closer together and um that's what's the most important you know um Starbucks is really about connecting and getting to know people and it just makes me get up every morning um more excited because I have people that I can you know relate to and just make their mornings a lot greater nice what was the training like for for to work at a Starbucks oh um the training is a lot um it's a lot of hard work and dedication and um just making sure that everyone is treated equally and having everyone you know come together and collaborate the way we should um so that everyone around us
026is um on the same page and happy and enjoying you know the everyday life and enjoying the atmosphere of Starbucks so do you have to know how to make every single drink on the menu um we do what is the hardest drink to make um well Starbucks allows customers to customize most of our drinks so we could have the craziest drinks um someone can come and customize and put add 20 things on it so it's really all about the customer you know the the customer always comes first and we want to make sure we give them what they want and what they pay for okay what's your favorite drink to make for me well my favorite drink to make would probably be a frappuccino I like the strawberry cream Frappuccino um and I also like
027the strawberry asai it's very popular here you know okay and what's there there there's always that conversation about the secret drink menu do you guys have the secret drink menu or are you not allowed to talk about that um they mention the secret drink menu and you know when I was not a partner at Starbucks I would come and I would order the pink drink because that was on the secret menu um but nowadays honestly the menu is yours H you know you have it you get it the way you want it anything that you want we are able to customize for you and just make it you know pleasurable for you and everyone else around us great well Tatiana so I'm going to do this with you because you're an Ashland resident so when
028guests come on my show Around the Clock news for Ashland there's a question I asked them all so think about this is there something about you Tatiana Pope that not many people may know that you'd be willing to share with the viewers of Around the Clock um well I'm a very hard worker I'm dedicated to my job I I have to be I'm a single mom of four children so you know this is really a big help to have the support of my partners have the support of my district managers um and shifts it just makes every day better and um I'm very I'm very crafty we like to you know just make things and alter things the way we want it to be and I just feel like I I'm here to serve the
029customer so well Tatiana thank you so much for speaking with us good luck in your new job and than you so much we're very excited welcome to Ashland as an employee but certainly welcome to Ashland as a resident as well thank you so much you're very welcome we are outside of the new ashin Starbucks with Beth Reynolds Ashland economic development director Beth what does this day mean for you oh this is so exciting it's so it's always so wonderful to welcome a new business to Ashland but to have a Starbucks here too is just a just icing on the cake it's just lovely we're so excited to have them here there was a lot of somewhat controversy about it coming to Ashland and then the process and what was that like for you helping basically
030you helped the process so that we could keep them here in Ashland right yeah our team worked really hard hard together um to work with the developer of this site um to make this a reality um so I think it was a solid team effort um that really kept them going um and the support of everyone uh really did help it come to fruition and what are you hearing in the community about this opening uh when is it opening it needs to open yesterday so it's so exciting to know that it will be open um for everyone tomorrow and it's an exciting day today to cut that ribbon we are now speaking with Adam Sachs he is the current president president of the Ashland Business Association Adam I'll ask you the same question what does
031this mean for you and the Business Association to have Starbucks here in Ashland uh well we'll start with me okay uh my family has been talking about Starbucks coming into Ashlin for significant amounts of time my girls many many years many many years uh so um they are extremely excited uh that they're going to be able to get their AC strawberry AC with lemonade um I'm sort of a venty uh black uh ice coffee type of person but certainly from the National Business Association uh we're striving to bring businesses here um and help them grow so a Starbucks is awesome and we're very excited we are now speaking with Becca Solomon she is the conservation agent here in Ashland is that is that is your correct title yes so Becca from your perspective how much
032involvement has the conservation agent and our committee had to have with this site yeah so the Conservation Commission and through us the conservation department had a lot of involvement in the early stages of the project with planning um interestingly enough the Starbucks property actually used to include the residential homes that are actually behind us right now and there's Wetlands back there and so um there was actually a really old permit on those properties that had to be closed out but it involved the Residential Properties and so Starbucks was actually really great about it they came in and they actually paid for the order to be closed on that property so that they could also get their their new permit on this property and so we've been involved watching that the storm water um making sure
033erion controls are there um and ensuring that as we're doing this project we're not having any environmental issues throughout the project okay so what are you going to order while you're in there today uh I'm actually not much of a coffee drinker but I'll be getting some tea in there I was going to say they have some really fun refreshing Iced Teas and things so maybe you can try something new yeah I think they have a strawberry lemonade refresher that sounds delightful good well Becca thank you for speaking with us and thank you for the work that you do as our conservation agent here in Ashland thank you well that wraps up another episode of Around the Clock as your host galanda Greaves I've hope you've enjoyed our sharing this story of the new Starbucks
034coming into town and as we end out this show we have a little clip for you you of going through the drive-thru and seeing what that traffic might be like thanks for watching this episode of around the clock and we hope to see you at Starbucks so [Music] wow look at that [Music]