The Starbucks #BLM Fix

Good on you – when something goes wrong, you fix it.

Mark your calendar – on May 29th, 2018 you will see all U.S. Starbucks stores close for the afternoon.

Starbucks sees this as necessary after a video went viral, showing two black men arrested when trying to use the bathroom in a Philadelphia Starbucks.

The coffee giant will be training its staff to learn how to treat everyone with the same respect.  Starbucks said it will “conduct racial-bias education geared toward preventing discrimination in our stores.”  This will see employees learning topics like implicit bias and conscious inclusion.

Kevin Johnson, Starbucks’ CEO will see that over 175,000 of employees will receivE this training

Johnson who apologized on the weekend for the way its employees handled two black men coming into Starbucks to use the bathroom said “I’ve spent the last few days in Philadelphia with my leadership team listening to the community, learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it,”

Starbucks is taking this very seriously and is gathering many experts to develop the proper training needed.  They are consulting such experts as, Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative; Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League; and Heather McGhee, president of Demos; former US Attorney General Eric Holder.

Even though this problem goes beyond Starbucks, Johnson said, “While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution.

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.”

This is not the first time Starbucks has closed its stores to help train its employees.

Back in 2008, all U.S. stores closed when they were struggling, to retrain employees on how to improve the ‘Starbucks Experience’ by ramping up technical abilities and customer service.