Starbucks is now allowing ANYONE to utilize their internet , seats AND restrooms

Oh I mean FREE OF CHARGE..

Circling the drain now.

Homeless will loiter with their crazy delusional behavior . They and the druggies will no doubt panhandle and the bleeding hearts will oblige at first.. But I give this 2 months before there are undeniable issues... Summer is here.

There will be MAJOR consequences of this stupid PC decision. The homeless are filthy and will trash the restrooms with drug paraphernalia and their psycho behavior. The race baiters will look for any opportunity to claim discrimination now that Starbucks caved so quickly . It's on the brink now.

Small cities and towns will mostly likely be all right. The big cities are gonna suffer with this decision

Imploding.

Maybe the public library will be a little more bearable now, though.

"Small cities and towns will mostly likely be all right. The big cities are gonna suffer with this decision"

I agree that the major metro cities will get the brunt. The small towns will still suffer due to people bringing their own food, coffee and leeching off the free wifi will hurt sales and profits. I do not think they will face the barrage of lack of hygiene and drug needles and mentally unstable people.

What is wrong with them.

The right move was to not kick people of color out of Starbucks for not order but to kick EVERYONE out of the place for not ordering.

This is dumb.

They probably won't even require the homeless to use the restrooms to perform their acts of elimination. Quick! Someone design a Poop Map app for Starbucks!

This is a good idea, I won't touch their coffee or food but maybe I will stop by for some free internet and bring my coffee from home.

r9 has a comprehension issue

I don't. I know what it said, I'm just fuming.

Using the bathroom and stopping for a rest is one thing but people not drinking are going to stay there and take up seats that are already hard to find.

I'm just very pissed off at this new policy of having it be a hangout zone.

CEO will be fired soon. People are dumping stock. I think it will bounce back so I might buy some stock after it drops.

"Using the bathroom and stopping for a rest is one thing but people not drinking are going to stay there and take up seats that are already hard to find.

Yes, and this will cause PAYING customers to seek their caffeine elsewhere....

I've seen the way Starbucks employees eye the homeless outside, no way they will let them in.

They will have to r15, or they are terminated.

That Philadelphia location screwed up big-time. Morons ruined the chain.

We are going to destroy them.

The left and BLM devouring themselves.

Over/ under will the first violent incident happen in less than 30 days or over?

What's a good alternative chain?

Honestly it's already like this in LA and it's not terrible. You get used to it. You use the app more to order ahead and get in and out with your order.

Leftists are VERY GOOD and destroying well functioning, effecient systems. They do it either wilfully or unintentionally because they are not comfortable with order, discernment, logic and closed , protected enviroments. They want all demarcations,borders and barriers to entry dismantled as they find them "oppressive" ,restrictive, tyrannical and unfair.

They confuse "power" with competence.

more work for all of their staff because of a rogue staff member fucked up

This is probably a long-awaited but conveniently stealth way for greedy Starbucks to start closing stores, cutting staff, and lowering overhead.

Especially for "underperforming" areas.

Anyone for a venti Urban Blightte with almond milk and whip? Order on our app now!

They are so fucked. I hate Starbucks in general, welcome to Homeless Central.

Whoops, that should have been an "i" in "efficient" Sorry.

On the bright side, this might open up business opportunities for struggling independent coffee shops.

They are so fucked. I hate Starbucks in general, welcome to Homeless Central.

Yep. And they will loiter ALL day till closing . Trust that

r22 is right on the $

I guess the Russian bots have found this thread, with the comments about "leftists" and "bleeding hearts" - if you block them a good chunk of the thread disappears.

Go away, freepers. You are dumb. You voted for a reality show clown to be president, so you don't have any right to attack people for lacking judgement.

Well there goes the only reason I used to stop at Starbucks. Clean Bathrooms. Oh well, I always wanted to live in a country as filthy as Russia.

I wish they had a luxury coffee store with costumed doormen, like the Dunhill store in Manhattan. Male models dressed in seasonal sporting costumes.

Far left loons have a irrational fear and hatred of Russians. And they lecture us on tolerance and not lumping entire groups... LOL

This is a great solution if you have a crazy relative that is prone to fits of rage. Just drop them off at Starbucks for the day and problem solved.

Like this but with cute seasonal costumes. Adorable Dunhill doormen.

There goes the neighborhood.

The corporate Starbucks people don't have to work in-store and deal with it , so of course this is a great idea to them!

r37, wait till they see their GNP reports.

When does this rule take place?

I drive right past Starbucks these days and go to a nice coffee shop called Bean Square. Nice trendy quiet well kept place with plenty of seating, and nice workers, and they keep the line moving. Starbucks jumped the shark when they said they were going to hire refugee workers. Fuck them, they've worked very hard at driving loyal customers who were paying their high prices, right into other coffee shops.

And their coffee is syrupy and overpriced blandness.

I think China is a bigger market for them now.

Come for the Java, stay for the AIDS

I used to think that those two black race hustler loiters who started all this were worthless pieces of shit, but it appears that in ruining Starbucks, they have accidentally accomplished something positive in their lives.

R30: Are you so offended by opinions that differ from your own? Did you ever consider that it might just be true? Your overreaction is very telling and not remotely productive to your cause.

A lot of bricks-and-mortar retailers are doing that. In general, the longer people sit in-store, the more likely they are to buy coffee or a snack. So offer freebies to get them to come and stay at the store.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had this in their back pocket and planned to launch it eventually. Now they'll just roll it out earlier and pretend it's a concession, earning kudos for "making things right".

Making a commitment to hiring war refugees is an offense?

I get that opening the doors to the homeless, who are often mentally ill and/or addicted to drugs, is not going to make for a pleasant experience, but I don’t see how offering refugees employment so that they can become self-sufficient is bad.

I think it says a lot about someone who hates it, however.

Seriously if they had a secure luxury cafe where drinks are $20, I'd go.

R7 mine too

r47 how about giving those jobs to poor black people instead of radically transforming the demographics of the United States. Pretty sure there are poor white people who wouldn't mind working at Starbucks either.

Why are poor black (and white) Americans not worth giving full employment to?

And people like (((Schultz))) are the ones starting all these wars and creating all these refugees in the first place.

Good job Philadelphia.

People keep talking about how the homeless people will fuck the shop up, but I’d be more worried about self absorbed assholes who just sit there doing work for hours, not eating or drinking anything they bought there, when there are people who actually did pay and have the right to a seat.

I read comments on Facebook in response to this, and I can’t believe how many people (mostly women) think there’s nothing wrong with this policy and that non-paying, non-customers have just as much right to take up space and seats there as actual customers do.

WTF is wrong with these people? I live in NYC so maybe it’s worse here.

r52 there's a good reason women were not allowed to vote for so long. They think with emotion, and not with logic or long-term consideration

“Utilize,” OP?

I don’t care about the bathrooms so much.

But people who haven’t purchased anything should not be taking up seats.

Starbucks is like the United Airlines of coffee chains.

Inept leadership and one PR screwup after another.

I stepped in to manage a starbucks after a drug user was found dead in the basement toilets. I spent most of my days battling thiefs, con men and sleeping homeless people. Oh then had to help clean the place everyday at midnight - no locked toilets or security. Admittedly I spent the remainder of my time counting piles of cash

Who are all the trolls who think a Starbucks business decision is part of the DNC party platform?

Some redneck Repug business doesn't observe safety protocol and gets an employee injured or killed and it's crickets. Starbucks decides to offer free restroom and wifi and THIS IS WHY LEFTISTS ARE RUINING THE COUNTRY AND WHY DEMS WILL NEVER WIN ANOTHER ELECTION.

Christ, you people.

R58 sadly we're infested by a bunch of Stormfront assholes, mixed with shrieking Marys who live in fear and haven't seen a brown person since 1972 - the last time they left Mother's basement.

This has been Starbucks’ de facto policy for white prople since the beginning

R52, table hogs at coffee shops have been a problem since at least the 1990s when I was in college. I'm baffled at all the folks on this thread who act as though that wasn't a problem before now.

NYC doesn’t have enough public bathrooms so this is a good idea

R40 what’s wrong with offering refugees employment?

[quote]Making a commitment to hiring war refugees is an offense?

Flooding this country with war refugees from overseas is the offense. Send the refugees to Israel. It;s a lot closer and Israel is sorely lacking in the racial diversity that will give it strength. .

"I'd like a Venti Cafe Mocha with a side of Hepatitis C, please!"

R64, Israel can't accept too many non-Jewish refugees without further risking demographic change that'll change it from a Jewish state.

That's the whole point, R66. Israel needs to replace its white citizenry with brown-skinned people. Otherwise they are racists whose society promotes white-supremacist ideals.

Israel likes to tell the rest of the world what to do.

[quote]Whoops, that should have been an "i" in "efficient" Sorry.

Yeah, cause that’s the only thing wrong with your post.

You simply MUST gatekeep businesses in cities. There are too many grifters and other types who will take advantage. Everyone will suffer and you will not be able to hire employees who need to play social worker/babysitter in addition to barista!

They will lose business.

Okay, so is there a good alternative CHAIN to Starbucks?

Blue Bottle? Intelligentsia?

R71 in cities there should be a wide variety of alternatives, local coffeeshops and even smaller chains. And if all else fails...Dunkin' Donuts even!

This is going to lead to more police calls to Starbucks, as the unlimited riffraff creates more problems and drama that the employees are not able to manage themselves.

I can't imagine homeless people an addicts in the Reserve locations, but I bet they're coming. In the US, that is. This won't be acceptable in Asia.

I eat piles and piles and PILES of shit!

Please, there can never be enough for me! Mm, mm!

I’m sure you’ve rimmed a few questionable holes yourself, R75.

Every Starbucks I've ever visited in NYC already follows this policy unofficially. I don't see anything changing much in your typical Starbucks.

I've done a quick dash to take a piss in probably every Starbucks in Manhattan and nobody's ever looked twice at me.

Libs ruin everything.

[quote]Libs ruin everything.

If anyone ruined anything, it was the stupid bitch who didn't want black men in her store and called the cops on them after they'd been quietly waiting for a friend for all of two or three minutes.

Wait till a child sticks themselves with a hyperdermic needle left by a homeless junkie.

There's got to be a solution to this... they'll refine their policies over time, I bet.

Bums will be waiting in the fish restroom for some fun times!

Pay toilets! Remember those eldergays? 50 cents in the slot to open the door so you can take a dump. Time for a revival.

You know what, pay toilets aren't a bad idea for Starbucks.

Let's take a dump while downloading child porn.

In Brazil, the Starbucks wifi has a login page. You get an access code printed on your receipt that grants you 45 minutes of access.

Many of them have the aforementioned "Dunhill" styled doormen and the bathrooms have keycodes.

Easy solutions for a popular clean experience.

In major American cities, I imagine Starbucks' new policy will turn them into defacto homeless shelters. I'll be visiting San Francisco in October and am curious to see this in action.

This is literally about as stupid a move as I can possibly think of a company doing.

I got no problem with hiring refugees/immigrants/aliens (both legal and space) who want to work. Anyone who wants to be a productive member of society in America should be included no matter their color, race, or creed.

But a blanket "Just come in our store, you don't have to buy anything" turns this coffee-buyer off. If I don't have to buy something Starbucks, then I'll get coffee from the better place down the street and use your free wifi because they charge for theirs! How about dem apples?

Oh. My. Gawd. People will break their Starbux addictions.

When I told the cashier at Muddy's (24th x Valencia in SF) that the homeless man exiting the bathroom had left his works behind, it was met with an eyeroll. I got my coffee to go...to the East Coast.

I would guess the caliber of Starbucks employees will fall as well. Stocking shelves at Walgreen's pays less but you wouldn't have to deal with homeless people's (literal) shit.

Expect an influx of McDonald's rejects.

The liberal left eating itself alive. It's delightful to watch.

It's perfectly within the rights of a business to only allow paying customers to use the restroom. This is ridiculous.

R50, I don’t know where you live, but at least 75% of Starbucks employees on the Upper East Side are black. I’m guessing many are college students. It’s kind of sad that they’re going to suffer from this bonehead move.

joe and the juice will benefit. birch coffee as well and others.

I don't use bathroom at starbucks anyways...

And there are plenty of nice little boutique coffee places in my neighborhood that are booming.

They're popping up everyplace in my area, and they're making Starbucks look old and dated. And now with this move, they look dumb. I've made the move to smaller coffee shops. But in reality I've gone from a cup of coffee every morning on my way to work to maybe one cup on Friday. They've helped me want to stay out of their stores, and I saw how much money I was saving weekly. A nice chunk of change. Fuck them. Let them have their freeloading bums and trouble makers who sit around being loud. A smaller local coffee shop isn't going to tolerate that. And whoever said above that this well affect the type of person who will want to work there is correct. The standards have been lowered for the worker and the customer. Why would someone want to pay $5 for a coffee and have to navigate through bums and deal with a disgusting bathroom?

I was at the Starbucks on 34th between 5th and 6th (across from Amazon books) at lunch hour and there were 3 tables where people were eating food they bought from home

In the Northeast and Florida there's a chain of convenience stores called Cumberland Farms and many of us think they have the best coffee. You can get a large for $1 and change. Beats the hell out of Starbucks. I only go to Starbucks if I'm with someone who wants to go there, I never go by myself.

R87

Here are a few photos for you.

Yes, this is what greets you at a Starbucks on Montgomery Street in San Francisco. Keep in mind, Montgomery Street is the heart of the financial center of SF. This is not some out of the way Starbucks in an edgy part of town:

Starbucks has done a lot of social good. This is just a misstep. Strong support for LGBT right, recycling and reducing paper use through innovative product development, green construction contracting, energy efficiency, diversity initiatives, health insurance for all store employees, employee stock options. Give them feedback - give them a chance to fix things, reach a balance between being "open" and keeping the stores clean. Maybe they'll come up with something new to keep the restrooms clean despite their being open to everyone: maybe they'll experiment with self-cleaning restrooms (like the pay toilets in Paris)...

Just... they're not McDonalds, you know? They're trying to do the right thing. Let's stay even-keeled about this.

Joe and the Juice? No thanks. Dear god - I'm not an extrovert.

r101 works for a certain coffee company from Seattle.

dunkin donuts coffee is better and cheaper.

$5 minimum consumption. Turnstiles at the entrance. Swipe your debit/ credit card at the turnstile to pay and pass through. Get a ticket that you use to pay for your coffee. No riff raff, no accusations of racism.

r104 and the black baristas will be grateful for a week, until they begin to resent white people again.

Is Philadelphia so bad that something like this would happen there? I’m wondering if this is more of a Starbucks issue or location one.

Philly is trashy AF in many areas.

There is a precious little citizen in r100's photo and it appears to be a Schnauzer.

Don't make them leave, give them some food!

[quote] Give them feedback - give them a chance to fix things, reach a balance between being "open" and keeping the stores clean.

Do you think putting "open" in quotes gives you legal wiggle room? Basically you want the corporate office to issue a PR statement and kick the responsibility down to the store managers to use their discretion. That's how Starbucks got into this mess in the first place.

Take two scenarios: A mentally ill junkie staggers in with vomit covering the front of her shirt and bolts herself in the restroom for 8 hours a day every day. Second scenario: a group of 30 grad students occupy every table in a small Starbucks from opening til closing twice a week.

Common sense would say that a manager should address these situations, but both are perfectly acceptable under Starbucks' new policy.

Simple solution: use of the facilities are for paying customers only.

I treated myself to a tasty iced coffee on my commute home, not from Starbucks. A nice local neighborhood coffee shop. I'm done with thei bullshit. The can lick my sweaty asshole.

So Starbucks is basically a homeless shelter now?

No thanks, I’ll go elsewhere.

Haven't purchased anything at Starbucks since upon walking up to place my morning order, the barista taking orders was actually sporting a humongous cold sore, touching everything along the way.

This is going to be a fun summer :)

What percentage of their stores are urban locations, which will primarily be affected by this policy?

Versus suburban locations where everyone comes by car, uses the drive-thru, etc? Those locations aren’t going to see any reductions in business from this.

r114, wait and watch LMAO

In honor of this thread, I went to my local Starbucks today & made a beeline for the bathroom, without buying a thing.

I pissed all over the floor, the toilet seat & the sink.

Haha lol R116 that's fucking classic 💦💦💦💦

The Starbucks in the middle of downtown Brooklyn (Jay Street-Metrotech) shut down for a week or two in late March for remodeling. When it reopened, all of the seating was gone. I’m guessing - though I can’t be sure - that this was their tactic for ridding the place of non-buyers. Prior to the remodeling, many seats were occupied by groups of high school kids, none of whom had purchased anything. (This was between 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon, when I would stop in between jobs.) It’s not that the kids were causing any trouble, except that I often stopped there for coffee and really wanted to sit for a few minutes. But there were never any empty seats. So I stopped going there. The remodeling hasn’t changed that.

R22 Yours is the truest summation of the left I have read in months,

It's sad isn't it? This sort of thinking will leave them behind in the dust for many election cycles to come.

Unless they wake up and accept that this is NOT what the majority want.

lawzzy,, the immigrants and homeless junkies will be campin out there

I will now go elsewhere

R116 An upper-decker would be fabulous on your next visit 💩💩💩

They need to eliminate power outlets. They need to shrink tables. They've been working on it, experimenting. In and out. The app is the future and current source of all growth in the US. China is also the future - a bigger market than the US already.

I think they're going to go very high-tech with the restrooms - self-cleaning, tankless toilets, waterless urinals, unbreakable fixtures. Solid state everything. I bet they're vetting vendors right now.

r47 can you honestly not see why hiring refugees there is a problem, or are you trolling? People from extreme, non Western cultures who likely have limited English skills working at a service job with high volume and rush times is not a good fit.

Honestly, I'd rather they didn't work at first and concentrated instead on intensive language and new citizen classes. That's refugees--immigrants have varying skill & language levels; they could probably work right away.

Maybe this will destroy the company

It’s made me avoid Starbucks.

Horny bums can hide in the fish T room and view some free stink-hole!

R124 what will destroy Starbucks is the individual baristas.

It’s like dealing with the Soup Nazi. I shouldn’t have to manage the mood of the person I’m handing money to.

The original story always sounded fishy to me.

Are there no vide cameras within Starbucks that would capture what originally happened?

I STILL cannot get over how there are actually people who think that it’s perfectly okay in a crowded location in a city for people to take up seats when they’ve not purchased anything.

“That’s the way it’s always been, this won’t change anything, derrr...” Yeah, except now you don’t even have the company on your side if you decide to ask a non-customer to give up a seat so you can eat and drink what you’ve just purchased.

I infrequently dine at Starbucks. Now I’ll never go there. So many better, serious coffee shops with much better brew in the city anyway.

Freeloaders have existed in Starbucks for years. They bypass small tables, and throw their lazy asses down at the four seaters. A jacket on another chair, a fucking backpack on another one, and cables & mug at the last empty seat. They even do that at the wheelchair tables.

Fucking laptops set up for hours on end while they surf with a long cold coffee from three hours ago.

They’re always avoiding eye contact too. Never make eye contact when you know you’re worthy of a punch to the head.

IMO, it's not their attempt at inclusion rather their way of getting the blacks off their backs after the arrest of the 2 black men who were allegedly waiting on a friend 2 months ago at that one StarBucks.

They should kill wi-fi or charge for it like the planes. No need for chargers, it’s just a coffee house. And charge for the restroom. I’ve paid 50c in places.

Instead of charging for wifi they should have it password protected, with the password changing daily and being printed on the bottom of receipts. Patrons still get their wifi, but prevents freeloaders from taking advantage.

It would never occur to me to use a restroom without buying something, having learned that as a late tween. Though, one should be allowed to sit in a restaurant, particularly a coffee shop, and wait for others in your party without being hassled.

There’s a small cafe in Ptown with only three tables outside in the sidewalk, in prime cruzing territory. One time while I was there, there was a guy who seemed to order a single cup of coffee there daily while he read the entire NY Times over a three hour mid-day period. I’d have tossed his ass if I worked there.

I knew a guy who would park himself nightly on a Spiritus bench for hours and order nothing. I think they eventually booted him as he stopped doing that. I was embarrassed to be seen talking to him there. (There is limited bench space, and a huge crowd at prime time, looking for seating.)

[quote]But a blanket "Just come in our store, you don't have to buy anything" turns this coffee-buyer off. If I don't have to buy something Starbucks, then I'll get coffee from the better place down the street and use your free wifi because they charge for theirs! How about dem apples?

But there is still the rule of "No outside food or drinks!"

Starbucks will scrap this policy after the first report of a homeless person injuring a paying customer or an employee. All they really need are private security guards like the ones who work in some of Manhattan's McDonald's locations who kick out all loiterers, regardless of race.

We know what you mean, Miss r134. At our gym in the locker room we sometimes see sisters in their briefs just sitting there looking at their phones,.. They are of course hoping to attract some prime sizemeat.

Does Dunhill sell coffee?

WHat is a Dunhill? And what is a Spiritus Bench?

A Dunhill is a cigarette brand. The ones in the blue box are what James Bond smoked before he quit or was ret-conned as a non-smoker.

I have no idea what a Spiritus Bench is. Somewhere for a ghost to sit?

or have the wifi only last 1 hr or 30min.

I'll never stop being mystified by the appeal of Starbucks and their shitty overpriced coffee & snacks. I'd rather go to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf or Dunkin Donuts any day if it has to be a chain. Hardly any of the Starbucks around here have sufficient seating & plentiful electric outlets anyway.

Dutch Bros is great too r142! Yeah I don't go to SB either so don't care if they want to piss off paying customers by not having seats. If they want to burn that bridge, I say, Flame on!

[quote]or have the wifi only last 1 hr or 30min.

What kind of work could you get done in 30 minutes? Ridiculous!

Will the Starbuck's be seated according to class?

[quote]except now you don’t even have the company on your side if you decide to ask a non-customer to give up a seat so you can eat and drink what you’ve just purchased.

I've never seen a Starbucks employee tell a non-customer to do anything. The few employees are behind the counter, making coffee. Table hogs will go right on doing what they always do, because Staebucks has never given a fuck.

R146: My, what strong language!

Are you new to Datalounge, r147?

According to my husband, nothing has changed at “his” Starbucks (where he is a regular).

Who wants to scrub toilets at a homeless shelter?

Young people need to stop glamourizing "baristas" and learn how to fix cars.

[quote]Young people need to stop glamourizing "baristas" and learn how to fix cars.

But, but, that’s too hard, what with all the book-learnin and everything. It’s much easier to pour a $7 cup of coffee for a hipster.

there is never enough staff at starbucks. they are always busy making coffee and now they take mobile orders as well.

Forget about Starbucks and their self created drama. So tiresome. Go to a respectable local coffee shop where there's hopefully hands-on owners and management. Although Starbucks thinks that there's no rules necessary, I'd rather rules, law and order, thanks. They're imploding, and the fact that they're so expensive doesn't help. Let them have their desired chase paying customers into other coffee shops. I stopped going because of their nonsense and it was a real eye opener to the extra money in my wallet at the end of the week.

i would rather go to dunkin donuts. that's where i've been going.

When heroin is particularly good, junkies will nod off with the needle still in their arm.

Will Starbucks management be allowed to bang on the door, or will they have to wait a few hours until the junkies come stumbling out on their own?

In some neighborhoods, stores have equipped restrooms with "sharps" containers for proper disposal.

When a junkie overdoses and drops dead in their bathroom, will Starbucks be held liable? Will the employees be held personally liable? That's something I'd like to know if I was a stockholder or an employee. Easy money for the surviving family.

Dunhill - 545 Madison Ave.

Some of the male model doormen are kind of ... available, I've heard.

Holland & Holland, too.

Some of you don't seem to realize that we all don't live in NY, SFO or LA. Where I live it's Starbucks or Wawa.

But do they have 7-11 or Circle K or Shamrock where you live r158? Any of those are better coffee.

I stopped going in

needles and poop in the bathroom , on floor, ugh

r157 I've heard that too.

After 30 years, the CEO is stepping down.

Wonder why?

R162, my husband thinks he’s running for President.

"There will be MAJOR consequences of this stupid PC decision. The homeless are filthy and will trash the restrooms with drug paraphernalia and their psycho behavior. The race baiters will look for any opportunity to claim discrimination now that Starbucks caved so quickly . It's on the brink now."

Oh noes! Where will deplorables go to threaten the staff with immigration?

Oh wait, they could do that anywhere.

R163 probably governor. WA is a reliably blue state which makes things relatively easy. Or Senator.

A lot of people are misreading this. Sure, you can go into the starbucks and hog a table/seat for hours (that exists as long as starbucks exists), but two things:

1. Nowhere in the policy says that you can bring in outside food and drinks. Sure you can sit in starbucks for hours, but i am pretty sure you cannot bring in coffee or food from the Dunkin Donuts down the street.

2. Homeless people can still be kicked out because their smells and behavior disturbs other patrons. You can sit there, as long as you are not disrupting the people using the coffee shop. Same with drunk people.

Summary: They say you dont have to buy anything, that does not mean you can disrupt their flow of business. Most people walk into starbucks and come right out with something to go anyway.

I still don't believe that those two black guys in the Philly Starbucks were waiting for a "business associate"; I think the white guy who said that was trying to "rescue" them.

R166

I can believe they were there for legitimate business. If it weren’t true then someone would have uncovered it. Some young black men aren’t thugs or drug dealers.

I DO believe that the men got pissy with the manager and her attitude became belligerent and then things escalated.

The actions by Starbucks have permanently damaged the brand, both in the act and the reaction to it.

So far, not much has changed at my local Starbucks locations in LA. It's fine so far.

Black people can't be expected to buy a token bottle of water to avoid breaking loitering rules.

Just like they can't be expected to graduate high school, or have children in two-parent homes, or stay out of jail, or avoid STDs.

yes, he wants to be president. another egomaniac cunt. fuck him

Starbucks is doing the right thing, I just sucked off a hobo in the restroom, it doesn't get any better than this.

I'm sure that the addled Starbuck's PR team thinks that their numbers are down die to the manager calling the cops on the "waiters" of color.

I could not care less either way, but the people I talk to have decided to stop patronizing them because of the decision to suck up and close their doors for extended instruction on suck-uppery,

Not Starbucks, but close enough.

Question: does anyone here make their own coffee and/or espresso? I can’t be the only one with an espresso, multi-coffee maker at home.

I got one of these for Christmas a few years back. I use Cafe Bustello, which is AWESOME, by the way, and I rarely EVER hit up a Starbucks, unless I’m hanging out with someone who wants to go. If I want an espresso, voila! Just get up 5 minutes earlier. If I want a full cup, I make regular coffee, and pour it in my Keurig travel mug, and I’m on my way. I know that espresso machines can be expensive, but you can buy a decent one for under 1K, and have it at your disposal, rather than schlepping into an overcrowded, noisy Starbucks.

I prefer Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, for mere hanging out and iced tea. Nice interior, and exterior, less frantic or frenetic clientele, and super friendly baristas. They also have much nicer patio areas with nice, oversized umbrellas, and parking.

R11 Imagine if everyone started doing that. I smell a protest.

I went to a Starbucks over the weekend with a friend and nothing had changed. No drama or anything.

Ok it was in New Canaan CT where there are no homeless or blacks, so maybe that isn't the best example.

McDonalds has a no loitering policy for PAYING customers. How does this make sense? What if someone brings in food or coffee from somewhere else? Is that allowed too?

I don't get the hate. They're trying to do what they think is right. Probably swinging too far in the other direction, but let them calibrate over time, babies.

Unless you're a Republican. Then hate away.

Or a Jew r178, apparently they take their orders straight from BLM and had initially had the ADL scheduled to speak on their dumb training day, till BLM told them not to. I won't be going there. Who can they more afford to offend? I wonder who spends more money there?

r179 thinks the billionaire Zionist Jewish supremacist donors to the ADL should be setting the standards of behavior and thought crime surveillance of the Goyim.

r180 Thinks Common should be dictating how baristas behave.

R173

The man had terminal cancer. Why wasn’t he in a hospital?

Doesn’t Canada have free health care for everyone? Why was his pension so paltry?

[quote]McDonalds has a no loitering policy for PAYING customers. How does this make sense?

It means they allow you an unspecified "reasonable amount" of time to consume your food and drink before you are expected to leave. A purchase of any quantity does not entitle the customer to sit for over an hour inside a McDonald's.

[quote]Starbucks is doing the right thing, I just sucked off a hobo in the restroom, it doesn't get any better than this.

That is so HOT! Details, please. I love sexy homeless guys.

R183 Yes that's what I meant to imply. McDonalds has it right. They even have Wifi in their restaurants now and you don't see people sitting there all day, and certainly not without paying for anything.

Starbucks' claim that they will always "get it right" pushes the ball back into the court of individual employees ... Which is how they got into trouble in the first place.

If a professional white woman can wheel in a stroller, can a homeless black man wheel in his shopping cart? If a non-paying customer (non-customer?) can spend 30 minutes in the bathroom taking a shit, can a junkie lock himself in and take a 3 hour nap? I guarantee Starbucks' new guidance does not indicate a time limit. And a "reasonable amount of time" is the laziest way to dodge the question.

Can an architectural student spend the day with his project laid out over an entire table? Can a crackhead spend the day with a newspaper laid out over an entire table?

As a customer (the paying kind; the only kind by definition) I don't want an ungoverned experience. A table at a Starbucks and a bench in a public park both have a place in society but shouldn't be treated the same.

So dumb. All they had to do was hang a sign like every other business in the world. Fucking Starbucks.

Starbucks is being strategic.

They want the coffee buyers in and out (like MacDonald's once did with the uncomfortable seating).

It's all about the volume - they want to be a coffee stand essentially, selling volumes of take away coffee.

Plus they get to be seen as community minded and not corporate.

I've often thought that Starbucks should have an 'open latrine concept' in their stores, as opposed to the traditional, locked restrooms they now have.

"Single occupant" restrooms are an invitation for the homeless to shit, shave, and bathe. God bless anyone in that situation, but Starbucks taking it upon themselves to provide that public service is insane. Conscripting their employees to cleanup service for the homeless is more insane.

Again, there are items on the menu for less than 2 dollars which would qualify you as a customer for those who need to use the restroom or do a bit or work on their laptop.

all starbucks have locks on their bathroom doors, i don't think they used to. now i'm noticing more. I know i have used it when i was desperate for a piss some years ago and there were no locks but now after these incidents, i've noticed locks.

I think you can ask for an extra coffee cup so you can piss in it.

I've enjoyed the company of a doorman in LA. He worked at Tom Ford. Very nice guy. Had a great time.

Starbucks, get on board!

iT'S NOW A NEIGHBORHOOD COMMUNITY CENTAH.

R174, I make my own coffee at home. French press. My husband patronizes Starbucks and I reuse the cups as my “go cups”. At least they get another use before they’re discarded.

And from now on, on the rare occasion that I purchase coffee out, I’ll patronize an independent coffee place. There are plenty.

I’ve rarely bothered using Starbucks as a public bathroom because there’s always a line and they’re usually gross in NYC.

R191, if it was a single occupancy bathroom like they all are, there *definitely* was a lock on it! I don’t recall ever seeing a Starbucks bathroom that was designed for more than a single occupant.

[quote] Send the refugees to Israel. It;s a lot closer and Israel is sorely lacking in the racial diversity that will give it strength. .

Lol - nice try, bitch.

[quote] In 2006, the official number of Arab residents in Israel was 1,413,500 people, about 20 percent of Israel’s population.

"I could not care less either way, but the people I talk to have decided to stop patronizing them because of the decision to suck up and close their doors for extended instruction on suck-uppery,"

If you need an asshole to English translation, this says: My friends and I are way too racist to enjoy our Starbucks rainbow drinks anymore, so instead we're going to suck on this.

It's Pride now - heading there now, hoping they have a Pride drink they can make w/ soy or almond milk.

r198 the poster may/may not be a racist deplorable, but honestly how could you not see this as anything but a PR move? If they were serious about it, the training would have included other marginalized people than PoCs in general, and AAs in particular.

I’m glad someone is finally thinking of MY rights.

Me too, r201!