Starbucks Learns Its Lesson, Reverses Policy It Implemented to Appease Woke Mob

Starbucks is reversing a policy that allowed individuals to remain in stores without paying for any items as part of new rules meant to increase staff and customer safety.

The coffee chain will start to post signage explicitly banning harassment, violence, threatening language, and other vices like smoking, panhandling, and bringing outside alcohol into locations, according to a Monday report from The Wall Street Journal.

“There is a need to reset expectations for how our spaces should be used, and who uses them,” Starbucks North America President Sara Trilling wrote in a letter, per the Journal.

The changes will enter into effect on Jan. 27 across more than 11,000 Starbucks locations in North America, making clear that cafes, patios, and restrooms are exclusively for employees, customers, and those accompanying the customers.

The Journal noted that some customers appreciate the ability to quickly use the restroom, even if they do not buy any items on that visit, though the arrangement can sometimes create messes that baristas have to handle.

Some executives had been pushing for such changes, referencing the safety risk that opening stores in such a way consistently invited.

The policy change comes seven years after police arrested two black men at a Starbucks location in Philadelphia, one of whom tried to use the bathroom as the other sat at a table. The pair refused to leave after they were denied bathroom access, which led to the company policy of allowing everyone access to the facilities.

Starbucks ultimately settled for an undisclosed sum of money with those two men and shuttered all locations in the United States for an afternoon of racial bias training.

This development marks the latest pivot away from woke corporate policy from a major company.

At the time when Starbucks first implemented this policy, wokeness was all the rage.

The coffee chain was probably seen as cool, trendy, and sensitive by at least some for hosting nationwide diversity training because of one misunderstanding at one store.

But now Americans have grown tired of such virtue signaling.

They would rather have the ability to sip on coffee in peace, instead of being harassed while their local coffee shop is up on the latest liberal trends.

As the country endured a spike in crime rates and other societal chaos in recent years, a policy like opening doors to anyone and everyone was doomed for disaster.

That is especially true for locations in major urban areas, like the one in Philadelphia where the original incident happened.

Rather than making coffee and serving customers who are actually paying to keep the lights on, baristas are forced to handle incidents with homeless people who loiter in the store, threaten customers, and often make messes.

Hopefully this reversal of an ill-conceived policy improves the working conditions of countless Starbucks employees and teaches corporate America once more that wokeness brews disaster.

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.