SBUX Starbucks Corporation

By Austen Hufford 

As Starbucks Corp. faces pressure over its handling of employee encounters with black customers, the company said it would temporarily close thousands of its U.S. company-owned stores in May to conduct racial-bias education.

Starbucks said Tuesday that more than 8,000 company-owned stores would close on the afternoon of May 29.

The move comes as the company responds to criticism that some of its front-line employees improperly treated black people. A customer's video recently posted online showed several police officers coming to arrest two black men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, handcuffing them while customers told police the men weren't doing anything and asked why they were being arrested. Starbucks Chief Executive Kevin Johnson has apologized for the incident. The men were later released without being charged.

The company said in a statement Tuesday that Mr. Johnson and the men "have engaged in constructive discussions about this issue as well as what is happening in communities across the country."

A second video that has spread widely in recent days alleges that a Starbucks employee refused to give bathroom access to a black patron after giving it to another patron shortly before.

The single-day training event is unlikely to significantly affect the company's coffee and food sales. Starbucks has more than 28,000 locations world-wide and the U.S. stores will be closed after the critical morning period.

There are 5,843 licensed Starbucks stores in the U.S., and 8,320 company-owned Starbucks in the U.S.

While stores are closed, employees will go through a training program designed to address unconscious racial bias among employees and help ensure that all customers feel welcome.

The company said it was developing the employee curriculum with prominent civil-rights leaders and activists including with Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative; Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; Demos President Heather McGhee; former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Anti-Defamation League Chief Executive Jonathan Greenblatt.

Starbucks will make the education materials available to other companies, including to those who operate stores not owned by the company.

--Julie Jargon contributed to this article.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 17, 2018 15:44 ET (19:44 GMT)

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