Starbucks says it may consider closing its bathrooms again to the public.
The New York Times says that at a New York Times DealBook policy forum in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Starbucks’ interim chief executive Howard Schultz said the company is thinking about closing their bathrooms again to non-customers. Schultz said part of the reason was due to mental health problems posing a threat to staff and customers who interfere with employees managing its stores.
“We have to harden our stores and provide safety for our people. I don’t know if we can keep our bathrooms open,” Shultz said according to the NYT.
The company decided to open its doors to the public back in 2018 after two Black men were arrested at one of its stores in Philadelphia. They were arrested for trespassing because a Starbucks employee denied them from using the bathroom since they had not made a purchase, according to the NYT.
CNN said this led to protests and negative publicity for the company, which apologized and closed its stores across the country for a racial bias training for their employees. Starbucks then decided to have open access to its bathrooms and patio areas for both customers and non-customers. Schultz — as Starbucks’ executive chairman — said in 2018, according to CNN, that it was the right decision because of the “implicit bias that occurred.”
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