Starbucks overblown

Starbucks has received a ton of negative press over the handling of an incident in Philadelphia where a barista phoned the cops and had two black men arrested for loitering.

The men did nothing wrong. They were waiting for a third person to join them at their table.

Fueled by social media (#BoycottStarbucks), the coffee giant is now facing an unfair backlash.

Starbucks has responded with apologies and it will close 8,000 of its U.S. stores for several hours to provide staff with racial-stereotype training.

Starbucks has a solid reputation for well-managed stores.

Their workplace is comprised of 40 per cent minorities and they’ve achieved 100 per cent pay equity across race and gender. They often make “best employer” lists, including here in Canada.

So what went wrong on that dreadful day in Philadelphia?

The cops who made the arrest obviously over-reacted.

With this incident, Starbucks clearly had one bad employee. Perhaps the employee wasn’t trained properly — so up that number to two bad employees.

Starbucks has 28,000 stores around the globe, employing more than 300,000 people.

According to the law of averages, with 300,000 people, even after proper screening and police background checks, there will be two jerks.

Starbucks clearly deserves the benefit of the doubt. We need to accept the company’s assurances.