The Starbucks thing

I have no problem rushing in and using a Starbucks bathroom and leaving, mostly because I've spent plenty of dollars over the years at various Starbucks and I feel like slipping in to use the bathroom that day isn't a big deal. I don't hang out afterward, though.

 

That is not at all how Starbucks has marketed itself.

It is the neighborhood gathering place.

If it was a problem, at some point someone would have told me to buy something or GTFO. Instead it is standard procedure.

Our neighborhood Starbucks is across the street from a public high school. Before and after school, there are at least a hundred kids in there. Do you think all of them buy something?

 

Perhaps the key was the bathroom. Per the WaPo
In the Starbucks case, one or both of the men had asked to use the restroom before they purchased anything. A Starbucks employee told the men that the company policy was to refuse the use of bathrooms to non-customers and asked the men to leave, according to an account by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross.

 

I don't feel the least bit bad stopping at a Wal-Mart or McDonald's and using their bathroom and not buying anything.

 

In big cities like this one, there's a code needed to unlock the bathroom door. It appears on the receipt.

Tourists, especially, struggle finding public restrooms in American cities, because we don't build any. So they default to the Starbucks, which are everywhere.

But now Starbucks everywhere are super defensive about bathroom access.

 

Nobody's ever heard of the gas station?

 

I have used the restroom in plenty of Starbucks when I'm traveling. It's my preferred place to pop a squat while on the road. 1.) I know it's usually pretty clean. 2.) I typically don't get any dirty looks for going straight to the restroom.

That being said, I can count on one hand the number of times I've used the restroom at Starbucks and didn't order a coffee to go.

As far as this "training" session, it is what it is -- a publicity stunt to stop boycotts. But I find it funny that by announcing this "racial-bias training" they're essentially admitting their Starbucks stores are racially insensitive. Otherwise their press release would state that Starbucks is sensitive to customers of all race, gender, religion, et al, and just say that the (two) incidents are not the norm for Starbucks franchises/employees.

Edited for Freudian slip. LOL

 

I'm sure that's their policy written on Page 82 of some legal manual.

I'm sure there would also be hundreds of instances of white customers at this very Starbucks using the restroom before ordering anything.

You have to stop and take notice of what you are arguing, poin. These guys were ARRESTED for staying too long at a Starbucks. Arrested!

 

Depending on location, many businesses have trouble with vagrants and homeless using bathrooms.

California Today: State’s Homeless Population Drives National Increase

 

Many of us work on the road and have to pee wherever we can. I figure the times I've popped into Starbucks or McDonald's to pee equals out to the times I've purchased items and not used the restroom.

Our community has a lot of homeless, so many of the places have a lock or key to the bathroom. Plus in California, if it's a one-seat bathroom, it has to be unisex, further complicating the issue.

EDIT: Buck beat me to it on the vagrant issue

 

I am not arguing the arrest, or the overnight detention. I never mentioned those two items.

I am sympathetic to people who work in public service and have to deal with dreadful public interactions all day.

I think if you are a grown ass man, and are using the bathroom and hanging out at the starbucks like its your goddamned living room without buy a thing, you are fucking lame. That's all. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it in my opinion.

I will give the teenagers in your hometown a pass. They are lame. And they don't know how to tip either.