Starbucks Closed 8,000 Stores to Complete Anti-Bias Training for Employees

 

A Starbucks Coffee shop in Philadelphia recently had quite the scandal. On April 12th, one of the Starbucks Cafe managers called the police on two men which lead to their arrest. Apparently, the guys were sitting inside the cafe and were not purchasing any drinks or food. Therefore, the manager called the police on them. From their side of the story, they were just waiting for a friend before they wanted to order something.

The public did not take the manager’s actions lightly. To avoid unintentional discrimination and unconscious biases, Starbucks closed 8,000 of their stores to start training 175,000 of their employees as of 2pm on May 29th.

Starbucks believes that the training will help employees be less biased with customers and will help employees better cater to customer needs.

This quick action inevitably had customers forgiving the famous nationwide coffee chain for the racial profiling.

According to analysts, the temporary closing would cost Starbucks $5 to 7 million dollars in lost business. Fortunately, it will not affect certain Starbucks cafes located in grocery stores or airports.

The executive chairman of Starbucks, Howard Shultz, stated that the actions of the manager was “reprehensible”. Shultz crafted the chain’s culture and was the prime originator of Starbucks. For decades, he grew Starbucks to be a successful and profitable company.

We applaud the serious steps taken by Starbucks to address issues of bias, and hope that other companies will take note and follow suit.

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