US coffee giant Starbucks burn £9m profits after shutting 8,000 shops for ‘anti-racism training’
The training was announced after claims of racism unfolded when two black men were wrongfully arrested in a Starbucks cafe in April
STARBUCKS yesterday shut 8,000 shops across the US to give staff “unconscious-bias training” amid racism claims.
Two black men were wrongly arrested in one of the coffee chain’s Philadelphia cafes in April.
The four-hour closures will cost it an estimated £9million in lost profits.
The training follows an incident in April at a Philadelphia Starbucks in which a manager called police on Donte Robinson and his friend Rashon Nelson - both black - while they waited for a friend.
The pair were arrested after one of the men asked to use the toilet before he had made a purchase.
A video of their arrests went viral and caused outrage. Nelson and Robinson later settled with Starbucks for an undisclosed sum and an offer of a free education.
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Starbucks said the arrests never should have occurred and announced the mass closures of its shops for the training.
The company has since announced anyone can use its bathrooms even if they are not buying anything.