@partyof5 Another report that I read a few moments ago stated that the Police immediately grabbed her, thrust her out of her chair and threw her to the floor without questioning her. That’s ABSOLUTELY WRONG on the part of the police and if those reports are true I stand corrected.
Yep, it has to stop. Apparently she only wanted to know why she was being charged extra and the server dipped into her conversation with her friend with commentary. She had a few terse words for her and the woman called the cops.
There was a similar situation last week at LA fitness but the cops exercised common sense and asked questions when they arrived. LA fitness promptly fired 3 employees the next day.
Im glad Sbux is having training, but sad that there actually needs to be training to teach employees not to treat customers of color differently.
I hate to tell you, but all the training in the world won’t prevent incidents like this from happening.
I’m seeing various different stories about the Alabama Waffle House incident. But I haven’t seen any story that justifies three male police officers wrestling her to the floor, pulling off her clothing and threatening to break her arm. Even if she was indeed guilty of disorderly conduct (this is disputed), and the arrest was justified, the way the police arrested her was not. Police need to use proportionate force. This was vastly disproportionate force.
Maybe I’m just a Pollyanna, but I think the training is worth it if it prevents some incidents from happening. And I’d like to see more training for the police too, so that they stop jumping to conclusions. In all too many of these incidents the police could have been agents of calm, instead of escalating the situation.
Training will eliminate some instances. Just an example- Our company trains extensively on safety when confronted with a “bad guy”- i.e. a hold-up or other aggressive person. A retail employee is never to put themselves at risk by confronting someone with a gun or chasing them out of the store. What do you think happens?
@MomofWildChild – NO one (least of all people of color) is under any illusion that Starbuck’s training will somehow eliminate racism within its ranks. But it’s a step in an ongoing process. You can go ahead and poo poo the company for trying, but frankly many people think Starbucks is behaving responsibly and is trying to turn an abhorrent incident into what Obama called “a teachable moment.” If every company had done something like this decades/hundreds of years ago we may have been a different society today.
^^ Why do you misinterpret what I’m saying? I completely agree with the training Starbucks is doing and absolutely am not “poo pooing” it. I happen to know senior lawyers and senior HR folks from Starbucks and have a lot of respect for the company and the training they do. They have district managers that regularly gather employees from groups of 10-15 stores for training. Our company would do the same thing in this type of situation. However, since I have worked in the employment law field for a long time, I DO know that with the huge employee turnover in retail and the quality of much of the workforce, it is a tough battle to ensure that your well thought out corporate policies are followed on every occasion. But, I’m sure you know better than I do.
@USCWolverine I assume when you use the word “inner city” you are trying to say poor, because many inner cities these days have at their very center a bunch of rich people and plenty of Starbucks shops. But in answer to your question, the reason Starbucks puts their stores in yuppie areas is because these areas are full of semi-trendy people willing to throw away a lot of money on coffee.
Starbucks and any other coffee shop would be eager to place a store at locations where people will buy a lot of their coffee. But they would have a very tough time selling a lot of coffee to poor people.
@MomofWildChild – I was merely responding to your comment “I hate to tell you, but all the training in the world won’t prevent incidents like this from happening.” It sounded like you’re belittling the effort. If I misunderstood, I apologize.
@“Cardinal Fang”
Golf club calls police on four women.
http://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/23296968/golf-club-apologizes-calling-cops-black-women-members
Some of this stuff is so stupid it’s unbelievable. Looks like the world is full of idiots. (And not the cops or women golfers although I hate slow play 
).
@partyof5 I came to post the same story. I particular like the part where the other co-owner (wife and daughter in law of two harassers) wants the ladies to sit down and explain to her what happened. Sigh… Again, the burden has been shifted to the WOC to explain why this was a problem.
@IfYouOnlyKnew Sigh, it’s exhausting. It’s just like the Starbucks ceo wanting the two gentlemen to sit down with the manager who called 911! Now we are expected to make the initiators feel better.
@partyof5 Apparently! insert eyes rolling
“Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, the two black men arrested for sitting at a Philly Starbucks without ordering, have settled with the city for what the AP today calls “a symbolic $1 each,” plus a promise to set up a $200,000 program benefiting young entrepreneurs in Philadelphia’s public schools.”
http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/05/black-men-arrested-at-starbucks-settle-philadelphia-lawsuit.html
^ is there another settlement with Starbucks ? The $1 and program is a settlement with the city ?
I believe Starbucks is providing them with free tuition to complete their degrees through Arizona State, which is the online program they partner with for their employees’ educational benefits.
Maybe part of the problem is the “quality” of the Starbucks employees. A week ago I was passing through one of the campus buildings which has a small sort of cafe that sells Starbucks coffee, pastries, sandwiches, etc. I decided to stop and get a pastry. There was no sign saying that you had to order in one location or pick up in another, so I just approached the end counter. I had my wallet in hand and extracted some money. No one else was waiting to pick up or order. The two women behind the counter were busy with putting food into a fridge, so I just waited.
They just ignored me, apparently because I was standing at the WRONG counter. Usually in that sort of situation a clerk will waive and yell out “I can help you over HERE.” A few moments later, a girl approached the other counter (about 6 feet away) and one of the women went to take her order. Now maybe I didn’t deserve to be served because I’m too stupid to know which counter to stand at, but I left, so it seems to me that their treatment of me was bad for business. They probably just work there, so don’t care if they sell things or not. What did they gain by ignoring me?
Lately, we’ve noticed that customer service is getting crappy a lot of places. Sign of a good economy, I guess. Must be getting harder to find good staff. I saw an uptick in courtesy and service post-2008 downturn but that’s largely disappeared again, IMO.