Rant 2,126: Lies

In the continuing saga of the Starbucks store which had two loiterers who happened to be black arrested for not buying anything in one of the chain's Philadelphia stores, the company had said it is going to pretty much shut down the chain in the U.S. for an afternoon so that employees can take a "race training" course.

Starbucks said that the aim is to "prevent discrimination" in its stores, but the real aim is to placate protestors and others who believe that the store did wrong when it had the two men arrested for being in the store, wanting to use the bathroom, but not buying anything.

Still not revealed is whether this "you buy, you pee" edict is a chain-wide mandate or just for this particular store or any store that wants to enforce it.

And still not known is whether the two men told store workers why they were there--they were meeting someone else, who, of course, happens to be white--and were to get together, and presumably to include coffee while they met.

However, the oh-so PC Starbucks, a company which wears this nonsensical lifestyle on its sleeve, clearly got bitten by it themselves with this incident.

Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson pretty much put the onus of the entire incident on the store, which has been overrun by protestors since the incident occurred, not only putting off potential customers, but threatening the very existence of the store and the future of its workers.

The manager who actually made the call--who simply followed some type of policy that was instituted to protect baristas--was not fired, if I have heard correctly, simply transferred to another store. This tells you right there that the manager was simply following policy, whether it is systemwide policy or policy for this store in particular, which probably means that the store had problems with people abusing bathroom privileges and not buying anything, and had to put a rule into place to stop it.

Johnson met with the two men who are at the center of this controversy, and he also met with their attorney. Yes, the ambulance chasers came out in full force on this one, didn't they?

Johnson's apologized for the store's actions, distancing himself and the company from the going ons at this particular Starbucks.

Are you telling me that corporate had no idea that this rule was in place? Again, if it is a chain-wide rule, or even if it is just for this store, are you trying to tell me they knew nothing about it, and it is only now that it is being taken to task?

Yes, the customer is always right, even if the customer isn't really a customer and doesn't actually buy anything.

So, since Starbucks is so unhinged by this entire incident--which if nothing else, shows them to be a bunch of pseudo-PC charlatans who are much like any other business in that they exist to make money--they have chosen May 29 to close their stores in the afternoon and begin this training.

Sure, it will cost them plenty of money to do this--in the millions--but the egg on their face will be fully fried by this time, and you know they will make back their money that they lost the very next day.

But what of the poor, poor coffee-obsessed individuals who come to the store on the afternoon of May 29 to satisfy their coffee fix and find that their favorite coffee place is closed?

"Racial training be damned ... I want my Starbucks coffee!"

Maybe it will be grounds for them to retain their own lawyers, and demand that when they need their Starbucks coffee, their local outlet must be open to serve them, no matter what.