Several years ago, did a little oopsy by calling the cops on 2 black men who refused to buy coffee or leave the store. This is completely legal, but it made them look bad, and so corporate did some typical damage control and got ratio'd on :marseybluecheck::
will close its more than 8,000 company-owned U.S. stores on the afternoon of May 29 to provide to its nearly 175,000 U.S. employees “racial-bias education geared toward preventing discrimination.” Both Starbucks founder Howard Schultz and CEO Kevin Johnson have apologized on behalf of the Seattle coffeehouse giant.
In recent days, also officially declared a “Use of the Third Place Policy,” making it clear that anyone is a customer and is welcome to use its store space, including bathrooms, regardless of whether one makes a purchase.
“We are committed to creating a culture of warmth and belonging where everyone is welcome,” the statement said. “We want our stores to be the third place.”
The Third Place Policy whose URL now results in a server error, meant that would no longer be able to kick out customers who failed to make a purchase. The obvious then happened:
But as I have sat at different locations in New York lately and overheard conversations around me, I witnessed firsthand a new scene that I hadn't quite observed before: At times, stores were mostly occupied by non-paying customers with their own drinks and food while some paying customers looked puzzled and left frustrated without finding a seat. I have also seen customers inside a store being openly solicited for money. source
The same writer did another followup piece a year and a half later which sources the least surprising study ever:
Monthly visits to dropped 6.8% compared with other nearby coffee shops after the open-bathroom policy was put in place in May 2018
With the free bathroom access, the researchers looked at the proximity of a given store to a homeless shelter and found that customer traffic declined at almost double the rate at stores closest to homeless shelters versus those farthest away.
Customer traffic wasn’t the only thing that was hurt. The average income of Starbucks’ customers has dropped compared with the average income of other nearby coffee shops, thanks to fewer visits from “its wealthier clientele.”
The full report is 43 pages, and everyone involved could have saved a lot of time by submitting the sentence "homeless people are stinky" to peer review instead.
Shortly after, closed its (bathroom) doors
Now, the coffee chain is effectively saying it can’t be America’s public potty any longer.
And, because an rdrama post wouldn't be complete without , here's a couple posts from baristas whining about the homeless:
CLEAN IT UP
Every single post is bowing and scraping in subservience to the unhousedchads stinking up the place. Good thing for Redditors the stench doesn't travel over computer monitors or it might break their bubble of moral authority.
i try to have sympathy for them but at this point its very hard. i feel bad for being bothered by them, but i need to rant for a minute.
they usually order a venti or trenta water but get quite angry if we dont give it to them the second after they ordered it.
they also walk through our drive thru and ask customers for money.
sometimes they just come and stare at us through the windows or do drugs in our parking lot and our male shifts have to go scare them off.
not so much now, but earlier in the pandemic they would come up without maks and cough on us. or they would come up with a mask on but take it off just to cough on us before putting it back on.
they used to steal our tip jars
The homeless are people. Talk to them and explain the rules you have to enforce. Learn their names. Just like anyone else if they are treated with dignity they may treat you with respect as well.
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If that’s bait, and it’s yours, I owe you a beer for making me laugh so hard that I sneeded.
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That’s got too be the worst advice I’ve ever heard. They’ll manipulate you too their advantage every time if they can, it’s how homeless chads survive. If you’re working a retail job with a homeless problem , treating them like subhumans is the only proper way too do you're job. Talking too homeless chads on the street or in a place where you’re not an employee is based though
Trans lives matter
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i unironically had a homeless guy give me a whole pack of cigs once after i talked to him for like 15 minutes outside a gas station, its possible for them to be chill but only if they havent been homeless for too long
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A bum that can afford to just give away a pack of cigs isn't homeless
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they were senecas and im pretty sure he stole a carton somehow
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He doesn't smoke cigs, only meth, and he stole them by mistake
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What world does this bum live in
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Bummer of a world that’s for sure.
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Meth is neurotoxic, meth users have trouble with volition.
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Thanks team 👍
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I had a homeless guy at the store I buy booze at. I was drunk enough to strike up a conversation and had a blast and we became smoking buddies.sadly the rest tend to just spit or threaten some form of violence.
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Yup, they’re people, people who are in a very bad spot and will cheat and lie for anything.
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It gets into
"you can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug"
territory
The time has come for the Necromaster. The unleashing of the fourth joker's card. The arrival of The Great Milenko
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I bet you this is not bait and was said completely unironically.
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I'd rather pretend there's pro homeless astroturfing than believe human beings think like this
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Oh is that what they'll do? This is like the poe's law of drama bait, i can't even tell anymore.
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I don't think it's bait because it's /r/starbucks but yikes on bikes.
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This is way too realistically redditor to be bait... I almost gasped when I read it
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