Starbucks Investors Question Cost of Bias Training, Howard Schultz Says
A sign displays early closing hours for diversity training at a Starbucks Corp. coffee shop in Philadelphia on May 29, 2018.
Photographer: Michelle Gustafson/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Some Starbucks Corp. shareholders have questioned the cost of the coffee giant’s nationwide anti-bias training initiative, Chairman Howard Schultz said.
The company is closing about 8,000 company-owned stores for training Tuesday afternoon, a move that Bloomberg estimated will cost around $16.7 million in lost revenue. It’s a response to an incident at a Philadelphia Starbucks, where an employee called the police on two black men who were sitting in the cafe and hadn’t ordered yet.