If you have ever passed time between meetings at a Starbucks, or run into one to use the bathroom, take heed: Starting this month, only paying customers will be allowed to use Starbucks facilities, after the company unveiled a new Code of Conduct that reversed a previous open-door policy amid widespread reports of abuse.
“Starbucks spaces are for use by our partners and customers - this includes our cafes, patios and restrooms,” reads the new Code of Conduct, which will apply to all company-owned stores in North America and will take effect on January 27.
The new policy - whose stated goal is to remind customers that they play a role in making Starbucks coffee shops “inviting and welcoming” - warns that any violators will be asked to leave and that staff “may ask for help from law enforcement.”
Starbucks spokeswoman Jaci Anderson told The Washington Post in a statement that the policy is designed to prioritize paying customers and staff, and to make everyone “feel welcome and comfortable in our stores.”
“By setting clear expectations for behaviour and use of our spaces, we can create a better environment for everyone,” she added.
The new policy also bans panhandling, smoking and drug use in Starbucks stores, as well as antisocial behaviour including violence and harassment. It comes as the company has struggled with sluggish earnings, stagnant growth and labour issues, and executives have acknowledged the need to turn the business around.
It marks a reversal from a policy instituted in 2018 by then-Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz, following an incident that sparked a national controversy. As The Post has reported, that year, two Black men, Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, walked into a Philadelphia Starbucks for a business meeting and Nelson asked the manager if he could use the bathroom.
The manager said the bathrooms were for paying customers only. Once Nelson sat back down at his table with Robinson, the manager approached them and asked if they wanted to order anything. The men said they had water bottles with them and were waiting for a meeting. The manager then called the police to report “two gentlemen in my cafe that are refusing to make a purchase or leave.” The call was placed two minutes after the men arrived.
Police arrested and handcuffed the two men, who later said in interviews that they weren’t read their rights or told why they were being arrested. The arrest was captured on video, generating widespread outrage, and Robinson and Nelson later reached a financial settlement with Starbucks.
It prompted Schultz to announce that Starbucks bathrooms would be open to everyone. “We don’t want to become a public bathroom, but we’re going to make the right decision a hundred percent of the time and give people the key,” Schultz said at the time, “because we don’t want anyone at Starbucks to feel as if we are not giving access to you to the bathroom because you are less than.”
Starbucks has faced several safety issues in recent years, with reports of violence and drug use inside its stores that some staff and company executives attributed in part to the public traffic in and out of stores. In 2022, Starbucks announced it was closing 16 stores across the United States because of unresolvable safety issues. That year, Schultz told the New York Times DealBook DC policy forum there was an issue with “safety in our stores in terms of people coming in who use our stores as a public bathroom.”
The new Code of Conduct has some room for flexibility - for example, according to Anderson, if a customer needs to use the bathroom or log into the WiFi before buying something, the company will allow that. Anderson also said managers and staff would be trained in how to handle different scenarios that could come up under the new policy.
Starbucks will also maintain a program it launched in 2020 to train its employees in their interactions with homeless people in coffee shops, through partnerships with local nonprofits. That programme is active in 125 stores in eight US cities.
In addition to issues of in-store safety, Starbucks has struggled amid high inflation, efficiency issues and competition from smaller, independent coffee shops, analysts have said.
In August, the company brought in a new chief executive, Brian Niccol, who announced a mission to restore the company to profitability and stability. In an open letter shortly after he took his position, Niccol acknowledged that the quality of the in-store experience at Starbucks had slipped.
“We have an opportunity to make the store experience better for our partners and, in turn, for our customers,” he said.
In an October 2024 call following the announcement of lacklustre Q4 earnings, Niccol said one of the pillars of Starbucks’ strategy moving forward would be to make its stores more welcoming and comfortable. He also hinted at other policy changes to come: “And to ensure our stores are a place where customers want to sit, work and meet, we’re beginning to revisit certain policies with our partners and customers being top of mind.”
- Washington Post