Starbucks reverses policy that allowed non-customers to use bathrooms, loiter — for obvious reasons
Sometimes reality is the only antidote to the ruinous idealism to which woke corporations routinely subject their workers and customers. Having evidently stomached a significant dosage, Starbucks is now bringing an end to what was effectively a seven-year social experiment, namely its 2018 policy of letting anyone use their cafes or bathrooms regardless of whether they made purchases. Employee-facing documents first reported on by the Wall Street Journal indicated that the company's new code of conduct bars non-customers from lingering or using the bathrooms on site. The newly updated "Coffeehouse Code of Conduct" states, "Starbucks spaces are for use by our partners and customers — this includes our cafes, patios, and restrooms," and prohibits harassment, violence, outside alcohol, smoking, begging, and threatening language inside its establishments. Water is also now reserved only for paying customers. "We will ask anyone not following this code of conduct to leave the store and may ask for help from law enforcement," says the policy, which applies to Starbucks' more than 11,000 company-owned stores in the United Sates. Starbucks North America president Sara Trilling reportedly told store managers in a letter this week, "There is a need to reset expectations for how our spaces should be used, and who uses them." The company began allowing non-customers to use and abuse their bathrooms after an April 12, 2018, incident in Philadelphia where two men were arrested after being accused of trespassing. A Starbucks manager following store policy called police, indicating that the duo, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, had refused to either make a purchase or leave the premises after trying to use the bathroom. The store had signs posted at the time clearly indicating that both the bathrooms and the cafe were for paying customers only. Footage of Nelson and Robinson's arrests went viral and prompted outrage, which was amplified by activists and elements of the liberal media who framed the incident in racial terms and cast it as an example of "implicit bias" as both men were black. Then-Mayor Jim Kenney said the incident "appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018." Amid race protests, then-Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross, who initially stated that police officers did "absolutely nothing wrong," offered an apology. 'We have to provide a safe environment for our people and our customers.' Starbucks similarly rushed to apologize, settling with both men for an undisclosed sum and the offer of a free college education weeks before temporarily shuttering thousands of its cafes to hold racial-bias re-education training for its employees. According to a lawsuit the company settled with a former regional manager for more than $27 million in 2023, the company also took steps to "punish white employees" in an attempt to "convince that community that it had properly responded to the incident." As part of its appeasement campaign, Starbucks changed its store policy, allowing virtually anyone to use its cafes and the bathrooms therein without making a purchase. The Journal noted at the time that the company told its employees that "any person who enters our spaces, including patios, cafes, and restrooms, regardless of whether they make a purchase, is considered a customer." In the years that followed, various stores mutated into veritable drug dens and homeless hideaways. In 2022, the company shuttered 16 store locations nationwide, citing a surge in crime and drug use on site. The New York Post reported that six locations were closed in Seattle, another six were closed in Los Angeles, two were closed in Portland, one was closed in Philadelphia, and one was closed in the nation's capital. Deluged with complaints and concerns from employees subjected to increasingly hazardous environments due to bad policy, former CEO Howard Schultz entertained the idea of correcting the company's error. "There is an issue of just safety in our stores in terms of people coming in who use our stores as a public bathroom," Schultz said during a New York Times DealBook event in June 2022. "We have to provide a safe environment for our people and our customers." Schultz added that the company had to "harden" its stores and reconsider keeping its bathrooms open. The Journal indicated that the reversal of the 2018 policy comes amid an effort by Starbucks' new CEO Brian Niccol to turn things around after three consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales in 2024. A company spokesman told Investopedia that the new code of conduct will go into effect on Jan. 27. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Sometimes reality is the only antidote to the ruinous idealism to which woke corporations routinely subject their workers and customers. Having evidently stomached a significant dosage, Starbucks is now bringing an end to what was effectively a seven-year social experiment, namely its 2018 policy of letting anyone use their cafes or bathrooms regardless of whether they made purchases.
Employee-facing documents first reported on by the Wall Street Journal indicated that the company's new code of conduct bars non-customers from lingering or using the bathrooms on site.
The newly updated "Coffeehouse Code of Conduct" states, "Starbucks spaces are for use by our partners and customers — this includes our cafes, patios, and restrooms," and prohibits harassment, violence, outside alcohol, smoking, begging, and threatening language inside its establishments. Water is also now reserved only for paying customers.
"We will ask anyone not following this code of conduct to leave the store and may ask for help from law enforcement," says the policy, which applies to Starbucks' more than 11,000 company-owned stores in the United Sates.
Starbucks North America president Sara Trilling reportedly told store managers in a letter this week, "There is a need to reset expectations for how our spaces should be used, and who uses them."
The company began allowing non-customers to use and abuse their bathrooms after an April 12, 2018, incident in Philadelphia where two men were arrested after being accused of trespassing.
A Starbucks manager following store policy called police, indicating that the duo, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, had refused to either make a purchase or leave the premises after trying to use the bathroom. The store had signs posted at the time clearly indicating that both the bathrooms and the cafe were for paying customers only.
Footage of Nelson and Robinson's arrests went viral and prompted outrage, which was amplified by activists and elements of the liberal media who framed the incident in racial terms and cast it as an example of "implicit bias" as both men were black. Then-Mayor Jim Kenney said the incident "appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018."
Amid race protests, then-Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross, who initially stated that police officers did "absolutely nothing wrong," offered an apology.
'We have to provide a safe environment for our people and our customers.'
Starbucks similarly rushed to apologize, settling with both men for an undisclosed sum and the offer of a free college education weeks before temporarily shuttering thousands of its cafes to hold racial-bias re-education training for its employees. According to a lawsuit the company settled with a former regional manager for more than $27 million in 2023, the company also took steps to "punish white employees" in an attempt to "convince that community that it had properly responded to the incident."
As part of its appeasement campaign, Starbucks changed its store policy, allowing virtually anyone to use its cafes and the bathrooms therein without making a purchase. The Journal noted at the time that the company told its employees that "any person who enters our spaces, including patios, cafes, and restrooms, regardless of whether they make a purchase, is considered a customer."
In the years that followed, various stores mutated into veritable drug dens and homeless hideaways. In 2022, the company shuttered 16 store locations nationwide, citing a surge in crime and drug use on site. The New York Post reported that six locations were closed in Seattle, another six were closed in Los Angeles, two were closed in Portland, one was closed in Philadelphia, and one was closed in the nation's capital.
Deluged with complaints and concerns from employees subjected to increasingly hazardous environments due to bad policy, former CEO Howard Schultz entertained the idea of correcting the company's error.
"There is an issue of just safety in our stores in terms of people coming in who use our stores as a public bathroom," Schultz said during a New York Times DealBook event in June 2022. "We have to provide a safe environment for our people and our customers."
Schultz added that the company had to "harden" its stores and reconsider keeping its bathrooms open.
The Journal indicated that the reversal of the 2018 policy comes amid an effort by Starbucks' new CEO Brian Niccol to turn things around after three consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales in 2024.
A company spokesman told Investopedia that the new code of conduct will go into effect on Jan. 27.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Originally Published at Daily Wire, World Net Daily, or The Blaze
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