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HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Did you stop by Starbucks this afternoon only to find the coffee shop closed? Today is the day the coffee company is closing so employees across the country can take part in anti-bias training. In fact, 8,000 Starbucks stores shut down early at 2:30 p.m. so staff could undergo sensitivity training until 7 p.m.
"I think it's good for the whole community,” says Ahmed Muhammed a Starbucks customer.
"It's a nice step in the right direction,” adds another customer John Shalu.
"You can never have too much sensitivity training right? Hopefully it will work,” explains Houstonian Ariel Sinsel.
Honey Brown Hope Foundation founder and Houston-area activist Tammie Campbell says on Thursday she was in a Houston Starbucks when an assistant manager began "yelling at" a 60-year-old woman who double parked.
”He was pointing his finger in her face. It was very disrespectful,” says Campbell. “Customers came to defend her. Other customers came, in reference to how the assistant manager who's white was speaking to the African American female customer and they felt it was uncalled for."
She says a District Manager arrived to address it.
”She reassured us that's the reason they were having the sensitivity training,” says Campbell.
That training for more than 175,000 Starbucks staff includes workers sharing life experiences, hearing from experts and watching a video.
"We're here to make sure everyone feels welcome,” says Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson on the video. Then the narrator adds, "And Common, one of our guides, will help folks start exploring their own identities." "Helping people see each other fully, completely, respectfully,” rapper Common says on the video.
The coffee shop decided on the training after two black men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, were arrested for trespassing in a Philadelphia Starbucks as they sat waiting for a friend.
Those two men settled with the city of Philadelphia for a symbolic $1 and a $200,000 grant was set up in their names to help high schoolers aspiring to becoming entrepreneurs.
We didn’t immediately hear back from Starbucks regarding the incident at the Houston Starbucks that Campbell says she witnessed. The activist says she hopes Starbucks will follow up the training with customer surveys to make sure the exercise was effective.