A recent incident at a Starbucks has caused not only the public but also the company itself to respond.
Two African-American men who hadn’t purchase anything and were waiting for a friend to arrive had asked to use the bathroom of a Starbucks in Philadelphia. An employee told the men that the bathroom was only for paying customers. The two men were later asked to leave Starbucks and, when they refused, the manager called the police. They were arrested.
People are now questioning whether or not it is acceptable to kick someone out of Starbucks if they have not made a purchase and if it is actually in Starbucks’s policies.
A bystander took a video of the police arresting the two men that went viral.
The public responded to these actions taken by Starbucks.
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson wrote a statement on their website about the incident and apologized for what happened.
The company tweeted an apology on the same day of Johnson’s statement.
Three days later, Starbucks tweeted to inform the public that they will close over 8,000 stores across the U.S. to conduct racial-bias training.
Four Starbucks locations in Columbia will close on Tuesday, May 29 to participate in this training.