EFFORTPOST Chronicle of how Starbucks fricked itself and its customers over by becoming a hub for homeless+ reddit seethe [long][effort]

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:

Let me start this off by saying I have nothing against the homeless. I feel for them, I really do. But my store has a homeless couple that comes in every day and stays from open to close. They usually come in, set their 3 or 4 giant trash bags of belongings in a corner and hog the cushioned seats in the corner literally all day. What really bugs me is that they're constantly making out. Like, sloppy, slobbery, making out. We've had several customer complaints about it and I've asked my manager about it and she basically said as long as they're buying coffee they're good. Anything I can do about this?+17

CLEAN IT UP

a not so gentle reminder that unhoused people are people too. if they are in the cafe, leave them the frick alone and mind your business. provide them with the same hospitality you give to every other customer. the unhoused are no different. as long as they aren’t doing something inappropriate or being disrespectful to you, other partners, and the customers, they can stay as long as they please until closing. don’t bother them if they are outside sitting down either. don’t be a peepee is what i am trying to say here. this isn’t a store issue, this is a human decency issue. +751

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.

grande rant: homeless customers

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.