*By Alisha Haridasani and Madison Alworth*
Starbucks' chairman announced Thursday that anyone, not just paying customers, will be allowed to use the toilets at the coffee chain's stores.
The change in policy comes a month after two black men were arrested at one of the company's cafes in Philadelphia after asking to use the bathroom without having made a purchase.
"This is the brand that they've built, this idea of the third place that you're able to sit at," said Deirdre Latour, a communication and reputation strategist. "So I think they're doing the absolute right thing,"
Videos of the arrests in Philadelphia were widely circulated on social media, prompting protests against Starbucks and accusations that the coffee chain engaged in racial profiling and discrimination.
The new policy is part of a wider effort by the company to rehabilitate its image and attempt to make its stores more welcoming and inclusive.
"Howard is a really good spokesperson for this because he's very committed to social issues," said Latour, referring to the Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz. "It's the right thing."
In announcing the new policy, Schultz said Starbucks doesn't "want to become a public bathroom,” but it will give everyone who asks the keys to their restrooms.
"We don't want anyone at a Starbucks to feel as if we are not giving access to you to the bathroom because you are 'less than,'" Schultz said on Thursday.
Starbucks executives, including Schultz and the CEO, Kevin Johnson, [responded](https://news.starbucks.com/views/starbucks-response-incident-in-philadelphia-store) to the controversy at the Philadelphia store by apologizing to the two men. The company also announced it was shutting down all its stores in the U.S. for half a day later this month to train staff to be more sensitive to racial bias. The company asked the former Attorney General in the Obama administration, Eric Holder, and the social justice activist Bryan Stevenson to help craft the training curriculum.
The training will be as much about explaining protocol to Starbucks' staff as it will be setting expectations with the public.
"I think they're going to have to really communicate externally, not just to their employees, exactly what the training is ー What's coming out of the training. What's going to be different in the stores," said Latour. "They need to come up with real actions so people don't think it's spin."
Starbucks will close around 8,000 stores for the afternoon on May 29 to train 175,000 employees.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-to-handle-a-crisis-pr-scenario).
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
