Starbucks to close all 8,000 company-owned US stores for racial tolerance training
All Starbucks-owned cafes will close for the afternoon on May 29, in the wake of a widely condemned incident that saw two black men arrested for waiting in a Philadelphia store
Starbucks will close all 8,000 of its company-owned US cafes for an afternoon next month so 175,000 employees can undergo racial tolerance training in response to protests and calls for boycotts after the arrest of two black men waiting in a Philadelphia store.
The company said in the Tuesday announcement that it will also provide training materials for non-company workers at the roughly 6,000 licensed Starbucks cafes that will remain open in locations such as grocery stores and airports.
The announcement from world’s biggest coffee company comes as it tries to cool tensions after the Philadelphia incident last week sparked accusations of racial profiling at the chain, which is the subject of a boycott campaign on social media.
Video of last Thursday’s incident showed customers telling police the men were doing nothing wrong and appeared to have been targeted merely because of their race.
The controversy is the biggest public relations test yet for new Starbucks Chief Executive Kevin Johnson, who already was fighting to boost traffic to Starbucks amid competition from coffee sellers ranging from hipster cafes to fast-food chains and convenience stores.
“While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution,” said Johnson, a former technology executive who took the helm about a year ago.