Starbucks moves to right a wrong
Will close 8,000+ stores for several hours May 29 to focus on racial bias
Starbucks, moving swiftly to confront a racially charged uproar over the arrest of two black men at one of its stores in Philadelphia, plans to close more than 8,000 U.S. stores for several hours one day next month to provide anti-bias training to nearly 175,000 employees.
The announcement Tuesday came after the arrests sparked protests and calls for a boycott on social media. A video showed police talking with two black men seated at a table. After a few minutes, officers handcuff the men and lead them outside as other customers say they weren’t doing anything wrong. Philadelphiaarea media said the two were waiting for a friend.
Philadelphia police released a recording of the call from the Starbucks employee that led to the arrests. In the recording, a woman is heard saying, “Hi, I have two gentlemen in my cafe that are refusing to make a purchase or leave.” She gives the address of the Starbucks store, and the en-
tire call lasts less than 30 seconds. In the communications between police and dispatch that were also released, someone refers to “a group of males inside causing a disturbance,” and additional officers are sent.
Starbucks, which once was ridiculed for urging its employees to write “Race Together” on coffee cups to start a national conversation on race relations, has found itself through the looking glass: under fire for its treatment of black people.
The company reacted from a high level: Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson called the arrests “reprehensible” and said he wanted to apologize to the two men face
to face. The company and a lawyer for the two men said they did meet, and Johnson delivered the apology. Starbucks also said the employee who called police no longer works at the store, but declined to give details.
Johnson also promised to revamp store management training to include “unconscious bias” education. Starbucks said its U.S. companyowned stores and corporate offices will be closed on the afternoon of May 29 for the training, which eventually will be incorporated into the instruction process for all newly hired employees.
The episode highlights the risks large corporations run when they tie their brands so closely to social messaging. In 2015, then-CEO Howard Schultz shrugged off the “Race Together” fiasco as a wellintentioned mistake and
pressed on with his public efforts to engage in the debate over race in America. Johnson was scrambling to keep the Philadelphia incident from shattering the message Schultz was going for: Starbucks is a corporation that stands for something beyond profit.
“The more your brand is trying to connect emotionally to people, the more hurt people feel when these kinds of things happen,” said Jacinta Gauda, the head of the Gauda Group, a New York strategic communications firm affiliated with the Grayling network. “They are breaking a promise. That’s what makes it hurt deeper.”
Beyond racial relations, Starbucks has staked much of its brand on its dual promise of providing good customer service and treating its employees well, said John Gordon, a restaurant
industry analyst with Pacific Management Consulting Group.
But in a multinational company with more than 28,000 stores worldwide, there has “to be a situation every day where some human being handles things wrong,” Gordon said. “Even with a huge operations manual that lays out what to say and what to do, you can’t cover everything.”
Gordon called the decision to hold the May 29 training sessions “the most practical way to get word out to all employees, the same way at one time.”
In Ulster County, Starbucks operates shops in New Paltz, the town of Ulster (including in Target and Barnes & Noble) and two rest areas on the Thruway. It also has a presence in Dutchess and Orange counties.