If you’re looking to get your Starbucks fix this afternoon, you’ll have to wait. In April, Starbucks announced they would be closing all company-owned stores nationwide (more than 8,000 locations) for a mandatoryracial-bias educationon May 29. Over 175,000 employees will participate in the training, and closing their stores is estimated to cost up to $12 million in revenue.
Most stores remained open for the morning coffee rush, andCNN reportsthe participating stores should close between 2 and 3 p.m. According to CNN, Starbucks located in hotels, grocery stores and airports should remain open during regular business hours.
Their action comes after a video went viral oftwo black men being arrestedin a Philadelphia Starbucks while waiting on a colleague for a business meeting. Many people claimed the men were subject to racial discrimination.
Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC
“While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution,” Johnson said. “Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities.”
Days later, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson appeared on GMA to detailtheir experience, and admitted that they wanted to be part of the solution and want people to take action to create “true change.”
“This is something that has been going on for years, and everyone’s blind to it, but they know it’s going on, if you get what I mean,” Nelson said. “[We want to] help people understand that it’s not just a black people thing. This is a people thing.”
The coffee chain also recently announced they were changing theirbathroom policyin response to the incident to reflect a viewpoint that every person who walks into their store is considered a customer, even if they haven’t purchased anything.
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According to theWashington Post, Starbucks released a preview of their racial bias training, which began with a video of the Nelson and Robinson’s arrest. “That is not who we aspire to be,” the narrator says. The preview outlined that employees will spend the day discussing their definitions of biases, their own personal experiences with bias, and how biases exist, whether consciously or subconsciously. TheWashington Postalso reports that employees will spend much of the day in a conversation surrounding bias, but will also receive a history lesson about public racial discrimination, including the civil rights movement, and watch video interviews with implicit bias experts and Starbucks board members.
Starbucks executive chairman Howard Schultztold CBS Newsthat this training was “just a beginning,” and went on to explain they would implement racial bias education into every new employee’s on-boarding training.
“I think we’re living in a time in America where there is a fracturing of humanity,” Schultz said. “And we have an opportunity given the fact that we have stores in every community in America to begin a very important conversation.”
source: people.com
