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Went Woke, Going Broke – Starbucks Announces Advertising Pause

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After positioning their brand in 2015 as the leading indicator of woke credentialing; then reversing course in 2016 on the plan to force racial discussion with every purchase; Starbucks is now announcing a pause in all social media advertising because… well, they don’t want to contribute to hate-speech n’ stuff.

…”We will pause advertising on all social media platforms while we continue discussions internally, with our media partners and with civil rights organizations in the effort to stop the spread of hate speech.” (read more)

(For more from the author of “Went Woke, Going Broke – Starbucks Announces Advertising Pause” please click HERE)

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Starbucks Partners With LGBTQ Charity That Helps Trans Kids Find Hormone Treatments

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Starbucks U.K. is launching a partnership with a charity that advises transgender children on gender dysphoria, including, but not limited to, locating access to hormone treatments. . .

Starbucks will sell “mermaid tail cookies” that will benefit the charity. Proceeds from the sales of the cookies will go to expanding the charity’s outreach, reports say.

According to BBC LGBT correspondent Ben Hunte, who revealed the news on Twitter Friday, the charity is called Mermaids, an organization that aims to act as an advocate for trans kids and their parents.

On Twitter, Hunte wrote, “Breaking @StarbucksUK is launching a £100,00+ partnership with trans equality charity @Mermaids_Gender. Starbucks will sell a ‘mermaid tail cookie’ and launch a national ad campaign promoting trans rights.” . . .

According to Mermaids’ website, the grassroots organization has “evolved into one of the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ charities, empowering thousands of people with its secure online communities, local community groups, helpline services, web resources, events and residential weekends.” (Read more from “Starbucks Partners With LGBTQ Charity That Helps Trans Kids Find Hormone Treatments” HERE)

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Starbucks Throws out Cops to Protect Others

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A corporate spokesperson for Starbucks issued a full apology Sunday after news of an incident in one of the coffee chain’s Arizona outlets went viral.

On Saturday, The Daily Wire’s Ashe Schow reported that a barista at a Starbucks in Tempe, Arizona, asked several police officers, who get coffee at the shop regularly, to move out of a customer’s line of sight or leave the premesis, claiming that the mere presence of several law enforcement officials made the customer “not feel safe.” . . .

A second statement, posted to the Tempe Offices Assocation’s Facebook page, fleshed out the incident, adding that, “[t]he barista said that a customer ‘did not feel safe’ because of the police presence. The barista asked the officers to move out of the customer’s line of sight or to leave.” . . .

The Tempe Police Department later said, in a statement from their public relations department, that they’d reached out to Starbucks’s corporate office and that Starbucks was aware of the incident. On Sunday, according to NPR, a representative from the Tempe Police Department met with members of Starbucks’ leadership team and the company issued an official apology. . .

Regardless, Starbucks is now facing a nationwide backlash and possible boycott — and the apology may not be enough. After a group of black males was asked to leave a Seattle Starbucks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, because the manager on duty believed they were loitering, Starbucks shut down all of its U.S. retail outlets for a hours-long “sensitivity training” on the subject of race relations, (Read more from “Starbucks Throws out Cops to Protect Others” HERE)

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Public Feud Between Starbucks’ Schultz and Elizabeth Warren Escalates Quickly

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With the announcement by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Sunday that he’s strongly considering running for president as an independent because both parties have devolved into myopic and destructive “revenge politics,” his fellow liberals have turned on him for fear that he might end up getting Trump re-elected — all because he’s an “egotistical billionaire a**hole!”

And it’s not only the radical left activists and Democratic operatives shouting out in crowds or complaining behind the scenes about Schultz toying with a presidential run, some big names have begun to speak out against his potential independent run, among them fellow billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Another public figure on the left who is clearly not excited about a Schultz independent candidacy is the first Democrat to officially declare her own intentions to run: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA).

In less than two days, potential candidate Schultz vs. candidate Warren has already gone nuclear. Speaking with NPR Tuesday, Schultz opened fire on Warren’s “ridiculous” proposal to impose brand new taxes on capital assets of the wealthy.

“When I see Elizabeth Warren come out with a ridiculous plan of taxing wealthy people a surtax of 2 percent because it makes a good headline, or sends out a tweet, when she knows for a fact that is not something that’s ever going to be passed, this is what’s wrong,” Schultz told NPR in an interview. “You can’t just attack these things in a punitive way by punishing people.”

Warren has since fired back. Asked by Talking Points Memo if she is worried that Schultz is going to screw up the Democrats’ plans to take out Trump in 2020, the senator went to her standard class warfare rhetoric. “We have a billionaire who says he wants to jump into the race and the first issue he’s raised is ‘no new taxes on billionaires.’ Let’s see where that goes,” she told the outlet. (Read more from “Public Feud Between Starbucks’ Schultz and Elizabeth Warren Escalates Quickly” HERE)

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Remember When Starbucks Caved and Opened Their Bathrooms to Non-Customers? Here’s How That Worked Out.

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There are so many contrived outrages in a given week, let alone a year, that it can be hard to recall any individual instance of outrage after it has already passed. But the infamous Starbucks bathroom outrage was so phony, so absurd, and so disconnected from anything resembling logic or reason, that it deserves to be remembered.

In case you need a refresher course: a Starbucks manager at a location in Philadelphia came under heavy fire last spring after refusing restroom privileges to two non-customers. The men, who happened to be black, asked to use the restroom but were informed that only paying customers were granted access to the facilities. This was not a policy she invented on her own. At the time, many Starbucks locations enforced this rule, just as many other restaurants and stores enforce similar rules. . .

Fast forward a few months. Certain Starbucks locations, less than a year after announcing this enlightened new restroom philosophy, now must install special disposal boxes for used heroin needles. They’ll also be removing regular trashcans from some bathrooms after employees expressed concern about getting pricked with needles while changing out the bags. There have been reports of condoms, alcohol bottles, and blood stains on the floors. Indeed, this bathroom free-for-all has made bathrooms ironically less accessible as some Starbucks restaurants have had to close their stalls for extended periods due to, says the New York Post, “prolonged cleaning.”

It may be fairly pointed out that Starbucks probably had many of these problems even before the new policy. Yes, and that’s exactly the point. That’s why the policy existed in the first place. A spacious, private, single-stall bathroom at a Starbucks in an urban area is an attractive place for drug addicts, drunks, vagrants, and other assorted characters. Most businesses are not interested in becoming de facto homeless shelters or halfway homes. Historically, that’s why they reserve their bathrooms and their tables for people who are actually interested in purchasing their products. It’s not a fail-proof plan, but it’s relatively effective. There’s a reason why these needle disposal boxes only became necessary after they changed the policy. (Read more from “Remember When Starbucks Caved and Opened Their Bathrooms to Non-Customers? Here’s How That Worked Out.” HERE)

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Starbucks’ Solution to Replace Plastic Straws Backfires Big-Time

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On Monday, Starbucks, ever-eager to portray itself as a corporation that is sensitive to environmental concerns, jumped on the bandwagon with those advocating the removal of plastic straws. Starbucks Kevin Johnson CEO issued a press release in which he said, “This is a significant milestone to achieve our global aspiration of sustainable coffee, served to our customers in more sustainable ways.”

One problem: as Christian Britschgi notes in Reason, the replacements Starbucks plans to use for the plastic straws, nitro lids, are comprised of more plastic than Starbucks’ current lid/straw combination.

Britschgi writes, “Right now, Starbucks patrons are topping most of their cold drinks with either 3.23 grams or 3.55 grams of plastic product, depending on whether they pair their lid with a small or large straw. The new nitro lids meanwhile weigh either 3.55 or 4.11 grams, depending again on lid size. (I got these results by measuring Starbucks’ plastic straws and lids on two separate scales, both of which gave me the same results.) This means customers are at best breaking even under Starbucks’ strawless scheme, or they are adding between .32 and .88 grams to their plastic consumption per drink.”

Oh, but it’s been so trendy to eliminate plastic straws. Britschgi delineates exactly how powerful that trend has become:

In July, Seattle imposed America’s first ban on plastic straws. Vancouver, British Columbia, passed a similar ban a few months earlier. There are active attempts to prohibit straws in New York City, Washington, D.C., Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. A-list celebrities from Calvin Harris to Tom Brady have lectured us on giving up straws. Both National Geographic and The Atlantic have run long profiles on the history and environmental effects of the straw. Vice is now treating their consumption as a dirty, hedonistic excess.

(Read more from “Starbucks’ Solution to Replace Plastic Straws Backfires Big-Time” HERE)

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Starbucks Gives ‘Disappointing’ News Amid ‘Racial Bias’ Backlash and Minimum Wage Hikes

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It’s been a tough year for America’s most ubiquitous latte provider, and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson’s latest news to investors has just added to the overall sense of “disappointment” in the company. Amid continued backlash from the racial bias accusations and more progressive cities raising the minimum wage, Starbucks’ earnings have fallen below expectation. In response, Johnson has decided to shut down some 150 company-operated stores.

On Tuesday, Johnson said in a statement that due to the company’s recent “not acceptable” performance, Starbucks will further “streamline” to improve its “innovation agility” and “re-accelerate growth.”

“While certain demand headwinds are transitory, and some of our cost increases are appropriate investments for the future, our recent performance does not reflect the potential of our exceptional brand and is not acceptable,” said Johnson in a statement Tuesday. “We must move faster to address the more rapidly changing preferences and needs of our customers. Over the past year we have taken several actions to streamline the company, positioning us to increase our innovation agility as an organization and enhance focus on our core value drivers which serve as the foundation to re-accelerate growth and create long-term shareholder value.”

That unacceptable performance, the company revealed, was a disappointing 1% sales increase globally in the current quarter, about a third of the expected 2.9% growth projected by analysts.

As Bloomberg explains, some of the “streamlining” Johnson referenced will come in the form of shutting down “about 150 company-operated stores in densely penetrated U.S. markets next fiscal year, three times the number it historically shuts down annually.” (Read more from “Starbucks Gives ‘Disappointing’ News Amid ‘Racial Bias’ Backlash and Minimum Wage Hikes” HERE)

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Starbucks’ ‘Everyone Invited’ Policy Floods Stores With Homeless, Used Needles

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By Conservative Tribune. After a Starbucks manager in Philadelphia screwed up big league and had two men arrested while they were waiting for a friend because they wanted to use the bathroom without making a purchase, the Seattle coffee giant has decided the best way to rectify this is to turn the restaurant’s bathrooms into public lavatories, free for everyone. . .

Other people were probably more adept at guessing what the problems created by this might be. And, as it turns out, the Wall Street Journal managed to chronicle some of the issues — including drug needles, drug needles, and even more drug needles. . .

“Drug use wasn’t happening in the bathroom every day, but it was definitely something that was happening once a week. The cops were called a lot,” said Darrion Sjoquist, a 21-year-old former barista who worked in one of the chain’s Seattle stores two years ago.

He describes getting pricked by a needle once while taking out the trash. At the time, it was bad enough that other Seattle Starbucks employees “asked Starbucks to install Sharps containers — the kind of locked boxes found in doctors’ offices — in the bathrooms, to encourage drug users to properly dispose of their needles.”

While drug use was the biggest problem for employees, “defecation outside the toilets” was also an issue. (Read more from “Starbucks’ ‘Everyone Invited’ Policy Floods Stores With Homeless, Used Needles” HERE)

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As Starbucks Closes for Bias Training, Black-Owned Coffee Shops Open Their Doors Wider

By NBC News. In nearly a decade of owning coffee shops in the city, Blew Kind has learned the rhythms of East Kensington, her working-class neighborhood that has felt the strain of the opioid crisis and the pull of gentrification.

Once in a while, people come into her business, Franny Lou’s Porch, just to use the bathroom, or they sit down without ordering anything. Kind, 30, offers them water and allows them to linger. . .

The welcoming vibe at Franny Lou’s, where lattes are named after historic leaders of color, presents a stark contrast to the incident that unfolded in a Starbucks a few miles away last month, when two black men were arrested after a white manager called police on them as they waited for a business associate.

The arrests spurred protests against Starbucks and the Philadelphia police, as well as calls for the city’s coffee drinkers to support small, black-owned coffee shops instead. Franny Lou’s customers shared stories on social media about how Kind offered a “safe space”; one patron left a handwritten note: “I’d rather give my coins to Blew & crew than racist Starbucks.”

Now, as Starbucks plans to close more than 8,000 locations across the country on Tuesday afternoon for “racial-bias education” for the staff — which could cost the Seattle-based coffee chain an estimated $12 million in revenue — owners of small coffee shops from Philadelphia to Sacramento, California, see both a financial opportunity and a chance to emphasize their value to the community. On the same day, Kind and other black owners of Philadelphia coffee shops will take part in a roundtable discussion at Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse to promote inclusivity and racial justice. (Read more from “As Starbucks Closes for Bias Training, Black-Owned Coffee Shops Open Their Doors Wider” HERE)

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After Drawing Criticism, Starbucks Clarifies New ‘Bathroom Policy’

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Less than 48 hours after Starbucks revealed a new [store] policy that allows anyone to use a cafe’s facilities regardless if they make a purchase, the company clarified the policy Monday after it had been heavily criticized on social media.

Referred to as its “Third Place” policy, Starbucks said in a letter to its U.S. employees Saturday that “any person who enters our spaces, including patios, cafes and restrooms, regardless of whether they make a purchase, is considered a customer.”

The announcement immediately drew criticism from customers and even employees who feared the popular cafes would now turn into glorified homeless shelters.

Even former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was one of many on social media who poked fun at the rationale behind Starbucks’ decision.

On Monday, Starbucks revealed more about the policy, telling The Wall Street Journal that employees now have detailed instructions on what to do if someone is behaving in a disruptive manner, such as smoking, using drugs or alcohol, using restrooms improperly or sleeping.

“We want our stores to be the third place, a warm and welcoming environment where customers can gather and connect,” the company said in a statement. “When using a Starbucks space, we respectfully request that customers behave in a manner that maintains a warm and welcoming environment by: using spaces as intended, being considerate of others, communicating with respect [and] acting responsibly.”

When dealing with behavior that may be considered disruptive, Starbucks said managers and baristas should first ask a fellow employee to verify that a certain behavior is disruptive and if it is, respectfully request that the customer stop. The company also listed talking too loudly, playing loud music and viewing inappropriate content as other examples of disruptive behavior.

Starbucks says it has also provided employees with examples of instances where they should call 911, which includes when a customer is using or selling drugs.

The clarification of its “Third Place” policy comes one month after a high-profile incident in one of the company’s Philadelphia stores, where two black men asked to use the restroom but did not make a purchase. The men were then arrested for not leaving the store when asked to do so.

Starbucks apologized for the incident, but was villified on social media as being racist. In response, the company is closing all of its 8,000 company-owned restaurants in the U.S. during the afternoon of May 29 to “address implicit bias, promote inclusion and help prevent discrimination.”

While addressing negative incidents in a prompt manner is a good public relations move for any business, even some experts in the field wonder if the decision to open cafes to anyone and everyone who wants to use them is a smart move.

Gene Marks of Entrepreur magazine says Starbucks didn’t handle the situation in Philadelphia well by having the two men arrested, but he also believes the new policy is a mistake, as well.

“What will Starbucks do if the policy fails? Has this really been thought through? Was it even tested during this past month?” Marks wrote. “Please, don’t ever do this in your business. Yes, we all sympathize with the homeless, but do you sympathize so much that you would sit next to someone who’s been living rough (and smells like it) after spending six bucks on a Frappuccino?

“And what about their employees? Does the company realize just how much more difficult their jobs will become? Will Starbucks lose valuable people due to the added stress from adding ‘policeman’ and ‘psychiatrist’ to their already long list of job duties? I think so.”

Some Starbucks employees are already tired of dealing with non-paying customers. A person who identified themself as an employee at a Starbucks in downtown Chicago said in a Reddit forum they hate the new policy because the store bathrooms have turned into a hub for drug activity.

“We haven’t been allowed to change our bathroom codes since April. So almost all the junkies and homeless people know the code now. About once a week we find needles, drug baggies, blood all over the toilet or walls,” the user wrote.

The policy of how welcoming a business is to customers who don’t make a purchase, or a restaurant who allows customers to linger well beyond the time it takes to eat or drink what they’ve purchased, is not unique to Starbucks.

But because the chain has made its policy clear to the public as well as its employees, other restaurants are going to be watching the effects going forward.

“The whole Starbucks situation has opened up a can of worms. In most cases restaurants leave it up to the discretion of the individual restaurant and most are too busy to enforce a policy,” said Joe Pawlak, managing principal at restaurant consulting firm Technomic Inc., told the Wall Street Journal. (For more from the author of “After Drawing Criticism, Starbucks Clarifies New ‘Bathroom Policy’” please click HERE)

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Starbucks Trainers Sends Shock Message to Jewish Group

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Starbucks recently came under heavy fire from the left for its allegedly racist behavior after two black men in a Philadelphia store were arrested after they took up a table and refused to order any drinks while waiting on a friend, all of which was caught on a viral video.

That led Starbucks to announce it would close all of its stores for one day so every employee and manager could receive anti-bias and anti-discrimination “diversity” training. However, in the company’s zeal to prove how unbiased and non-discriminatory it is in its treatment of blacks, Starbucks managed to show bias and discrimination toward another minority group.

According to Politico, Starbucks appears to have caved to pressure from progressive black activists and removed the predominately Jewish Anti-Defamation League — which has long led the fight against anti-Semitic discrimination against Jews — from the top tier of the company’s lineup of anti-discrimination trainers for its upcoming “diversity” sessions.

Instead, the ADL has been demoted to a lower tier of advisers to the training and will be excluded from assisting in developing the curriculum that will be used to train Starbucks employees on how not to discriminate against members of the liberal base.

Initially, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt had been invited by the coffee chain to be one of four leaders of the diversity training sessions, but Greenblatt’s name was conspicuously absent in an April 24 press release about the training event, which only mentioned in passing that Starbucks would “consult with” the ADL on anti-discrimination training, among an array of other advisory groups. (Read more from “Starbucks Trainers Sends Shock Message to Jewish Group” HERE)

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