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Food City has been a part of the community in Harlan for many years. On Monday, the store began offering a new choice for Harlan County coffee lovers as the well-known coffee shop chain Starbucks opened a brand-new location inside Food City, bringing top notch coffees, snacks, and more to the menu.

Food City CEO and President Steve Smith was on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony, along with Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley, city of Harlan Mayor Joe Meadors, members of the Harlan City Council, members of the Harlan County Chamber of Commerce, Food City staff, many Food City shoppers and citizens of Harlan County.

“We’re here to celebrate the Grand Opening of our 60th Starbucks in our company’s history,” Smith said. “We’ve been with Starbucks for about 5 years now. We’ve grown exponentially, it’s been well received in all of our Kentucky stores. We’re just delighted to continue to make an investment here in Harlan County.”

Mosley mentioned the Starbucks facility adds 20 employees to the Food City location.

“Starbucks is a favorite of coffee drinkers worldwide,” Mosley said. “I appreciate Food City’s investment to create new things within their store. They’ve been a great community partner through the years, they’ve been a platinum sponsor of our Poke Sallet Festival for as far back as I can remember. This is just another one of the community investments they’ve made, they made some improvements here a few years ago with their hot bar and deli that they added to the store. They employ many people, this Starbucks addition added 20 new jobs to the store. I’m certain it’s a place that will be frequented by a lot of Harlan County coffee drinkers.”

Meadors is happy to see Starbucks come to Harlan.

“I think it’s a great thing for our community,” Meadors said. “Anytime we can spend our money locally, it’s better for us. It keeps jobs within our community, that money turns over and is spent for other things in our community. This is another investment by Food City, and we appreciate their interest in Harlan County. We look forward to a successful Starbucks.”

Following the ribbon cutting folks lined up to purchase their favorite Starbucks products.