Starbucks chairman: ‘We were absolutely wrong in every way’

Howard Schultz has detailed how the company will change its bathroom policy after two black men, having asked to use the restroom in a Philadelphia store, were arrested for trespassing.

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Starbucks says it has more work to do on race—and Chairman Howard Schultz is doing the talking.

While speaking to the Atlantic Council in Washington, Schultz outlined what he sees as necessary changes for Starbucks’ bathroom policy.

The Washington Post reported:

“We don’t want to become a public bathroom, but we’re going to make the right decision a hundred percent of the time and give people the key,” Schultz said, “because we don’t want anyone at Starbucks to feel as if we are not giving access to you to the bathroom because you are less than.”

He said that Starbucks previously had a “loose policy” that only customers should be allowed to use the bathrooms but that it was up to each store manager’s discretion.

The policy change comes after two black men were arrested at Philadelphia Starbucks; a store manager called police after the men asked to use the restroom without making a purchase.

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