I like it now.

That's a helluva reponse. Though my (albeit small) skepticism tells me it's damned effective branding, they're trying to get in front of this as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

...so it doesn't surprise me that they are trying to get ahead of this.

And I think it's important that we recognize when a company responds appropriately.

I am not a huge fan of their coffee and have been avoiding them since the Philly thing. However, I will keep my eyes peeled to see what they end up doing with this.

Smart move

Jumped right out in front and took charge of the mess in a serious and admirable way. They're still regarded industry-wide as having provided a "good guys' guide" for how to handle a scandal/controversy/public relations disaster properly and responsibly. Their CEO stepped up into the public spotlight almost literally immediately, took full responsibility with NO bullshit, excuses, or weasel wordings. He led a full-court-press effort - in the glare of the public spotlight - to repair, rehabilitate, and reform the company's image and practices. They implemented the child-proof cap, for example, and other first-in-the-industry consumer protections. BIGTIME points for them. That's REAL leadership. They deservedly became THE model for how and what to do to handle a company crisis and avoid a public relations nightmare (as well as some very bad karma!).

http://time.com/3423136/tylenol-deaths-1982/

One victim, 27-year-old Adam Janus, took Tylenol for minor chest pain and died within hours. His younger brother and sister-in-law were killed after taking pills from the same bottle while grieving the sudden, shocking loss at Janus’ house.

TIME’s Susan Tifft wrote of the tragedy’s victims on Oct. 11, 1982:

Twelve-year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village took Extra-Strength Tylenol to ward off a cold that had been dogging her. Mary Reiner, 27… had recently given birth to her fourth child. Paula Prince, 35, a United Airlines stewardess, was found dead in her Chicago apartment, an open bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol near by in the bathroom. Says Dr. Kim [the chief of critical care at Northwest Community Hospital]: “The victims never had a chance. Death was certain within minutes.”
Without a suspect to revile, public outrage could have fallen squarely on Tylenol — the nation’s leading painkiller, with a market share greater than the next four top painkillers combined — and its parent corporation, Johnson & Johnson. Instead, by quickly recalling all of its products from store shelves, a move that cost Johnson & Johnson millions of dollars, the company emerged as another victim of the crime and one that put customer safety above profit. It even issued national warnings urging the public not to take Tylenol and established a hotline for worried customers to call.

Tylenol relatively quickly reestablished its brand, recovering the entire market share it lost during the cyanide scare. Though things could have gone very differently, the episode’s most lasting legacy has been in the annals of public relations, not poison control: the case has since become a model for effective corporate crisis management.

Now you're talking!

basic training, de-militarization of municipal departments, damn i wish we could take their guns the way they do in the UK...but maybe Starbucks, which is almost as ubiquitous as the police, maybe by their doing this we can start that change. save some lives.

Needed so much.

Last edited Tue Apr 17, 2018, 04:17 PM - Edit history (2)

It is my daily habit

I have around 5 Starbucks around me but I'll always look for other roasters and distributors. I used to live in Seattle and I rarely used their over-priced shops.

Still, good PR move.

And I like Stumptown, but Mothing does it for me like a Starbucks americano—even after I’ve had a French press coffee at home.

It is great to see anyone who responds this well when they recognize their employees being racists.

Stopping racism in businesses has to start at the top of the management chain.

Yep. This is an urgent problem and I'm glad to see they're stepping up and taking the bull by the horns, as it were. This is a nationwide statement, not only recognizing there's a problem but doing something about it. And as anyone in any kind of recovery will attest: First you have to admit you have a problem. Sadly, denial is the biggest toxin that's been embraced, and thoroughly ingested, by far too many. From this White House on down the political food chain and beyond.

This is overkill. A racist is going to be a racist. Sitting through a Starbucks training class will likely make him/her dislike "them" even more. OTOH, if the home office shows that they're not too happy about the millions of dollars this kind of ass-holery is costing them, maybe employees will think twice before picking up that phone to dial 911 for scary black men sitting at a table. But I don't hold out high hope that you're getting to change the racist who swears he's not a racist.

...calling the cops on skeery black men sitting in your stores for no apparent good reason is not acceptable behavior...and for those racists who can't deal w/ that, they can get themselves another job.

Did the store manager (whom I guess is the one who called the cops) resign? Thought I read that someplace in all the brouhaha about this but not sure if it's true.

If they don't like it, they can leave.

I also applaud this as a positive sign and in recognition of a serious corporate response.

Explicit bias seen in overt racism is one thing. But this effort seems to be helping get at implicit biases which drives the more prevalent unconscious covert racism.

This is a great PR move.

All they need to do is to increase sales by 0.2739726% (literally) and its break-even.

But they'll probably increase several times that.

I totally agree it's a great PR move, and very necessary. I was kind of thinking out loud, feeling that it shouldn't even have gotten to this point. I don't argue with any of the points made.

"It shouldn't even have gotten to this point."

TOTALLY.

Has analytics showing they have a long way to go in penetrating market for African American and Latino $$$.

From a capitalist/ethical standpoint is his makes a ton of sense.

Also, fire the manager or pay her to go away. She should not be serving any more Starbucks customers.

This is an institutional issue, not just an individual one.

the training will most likely be a real eye-opener for many and should facilitate a change for the better.

so someone on DU i believe told me yesterday the manager was fired. on twitter she wasn't - i don't know.

These types of incidents have happened all over the country at various Starbucks locations (maybe not necessarily resulting in arrest, but implicit bias and treating POC different from white patrons).

To think this is an isolated incident is to have your head in the sand.

the righties and faux just won't like this. not even a little.

A bold action for a terrible situation. I don't drink Sbucks coffee, but applaud this move.

stand where others are standing , always a question because of employees like that in charge.
Except this racist asshole did not even go over to talk to them, that's what makes it a story
She just called the cops no notice, and of course the cops comply
I'm glad it's not the end of the story

And nobody accepts the blame

Racist Manager: I didn't do anything wrong. I just called the police. That's not MY fault that THEY arrested them!

Police: Not OUR fault. The white lady said they'd committed a crime, so we didn't have a choice. We HAD to arrest them. It's not OUR fault she's a racist and profiled them!

A Whole Lot of Wypipo: It's not the manager's or the cops' fault. It's all those two men's fault. The manager had a right to ask them to leave and they refused. And then the cops asked them to leave and they didn't, so what else were they supposed to do?! They HAD to arrest them! If they had just left when they were asked, none of this would have happened. It's all the black guys who got arrested's fault!

And now they've caused all this trouble.

They are taking this very seriously. I can't imagine how much this will cost them.

If there sales increase by 0.2739726% for the rest of the year its a net gain.

Most companies would do this quietly and behind the scenes.

This is genius. The entire world knows exactly what their actions.

I think I'll pick up some star bucks stock.

Nice to see a company actually following what was probably the good advice of their PR counselors.

Wondering if they get that time off?🤔

(Not close the stations, but you get the point)

this reflects an actual commitment to change. wow. shocked.

I don't know how to feel about this.

....since people can make all the calls they want but if someone isn't actually doing something the police can't and shouldn't arrest them. But in this case they did.

So......yeah.....I'll wait.

Bullshit.

We need public service announcements or some kind of public education about not calling the police over black people walking their dogs, or jogging, or buying something at a store, or whatever. And not exaggerating or making things up to get a greater response - because they do get a greater response and people die. People need to be held responsible for that kind of thing.

...I've seen countless instances of people calling the cops on any number of things just because they were easily annoyed or easily scared. But when the police arrive it's clear nothing is going on and that it was just some old lady being cranky about noisy kids or whatever. But if the police get there don't see anything going on, and are not racist themselves then nothing happens.

Last edited Tue Apr 17, 2018, 11:11 PM - Edit history (1)

It took both of them to cause the problem. Without the action of both of them, this wouldn’t have happened.

Police officers are trained to evaluate threats and de-escalate situations. They need to actually do that no matter what color the person is.

They prob need it. Plus it gives people a day without overpriced bad coffee.

(That said how is this a "breaking" story. I know the cable people misuse the term, but let's not do it here).

What a bullshit response..... first of all, the young guys should have NEVER been busted in the first place.... ridiculous... its just a patch to try and not have the wave of young adults who are jumping on the NRA, NOT TO BOYCOTT STARBUCKS...

Sorry, but this bs should never need to happen, because there shouldn't be ANY racial, sexual, or age bias at all.

You seem to blame Starbucks for not cracking down on racist behavior of employees, and then call bs when they implement mandatory training to reduce the problem, claiming they shouldn't have ever had the problem in the first place. Sure they coulda, woulda, shoulda had better policing all along, but what is it you will accept as a proper corporate response going forward?

=========

This is my opinion, this is a BS response after there was a call to boycott the stores. The mandatory training should have been done when the employees were hired, not after the incident occurs. Shoulda, woulda, etc.... no should have trained at the time of employment.

if they want to keep their jobs...and that is a good thing.

Ok great, but sorry, and I have seen it, lived it worked it..... it is very hard to change ones tune on sexism, racism, ageism with one day meeting. If you are a racist, sexist, ageist, I highly doubt you are going to change your attitude in one day. Again, I am not against the training, my only thought of it is, this training should be done at the time of employment, not when an incident occurs. Many will think this is a watershed moment for Starbucks, but I think this is a Media/PR stunt to avoid a boycott.

Support your local independent coffee stores everybody!

came from local stores...some didn't train their baristas properly...and didn't have the automatic idiot proof machines.

Anyone expecting change from this or celebrating this blatant PR cover up is naive.

....has a regular national policy of calling the cops on POC and having them arrested?

Philly did after this.

How will the company deliver this curriculum consistently across all locations? What will they measure to determine whether it's working? I have questions.