Tempe Officers Association tweeted a graphic of a hand pouring out a cup of coffee as a form to protest Starbucks over the incident of police officers being asked to leave a store in Arizona. (Image via The Washington Pundit)

Starbucks Apologizes for Kicking Officers Out of Store in Arizona

Kinanty Nadia Putri
Business & Industry
Retail & Food Services
Jul 08, 2019
2054
Starbucks executive vice president and president of US retail, Rossann Williams, released an apology statement on late Saturday (7/6) after one of the baristas asked six police officers to leave the coffee shop in Tempe, Arizona.

According to a report, six officers walked into a Starbucks to enjoy coffees on the celebration of July Fourth and later were approached by one barista telling them to move out from the customer’s line and leave because a customer did not feel safe with the officers’ presence. The officer eventually left the coffee shop disappointedly.

Following the incident on Friday (7/5), Tempe Officers Association had taken a combative stance by tweeting a hand pouring out a cup of coffee graphic in a style of Starbucks’ logo with words ‘DUMP STARBUCKS’ and saying the officers who were asked to leave are veterans. The tweet ended with the hashtag ‘#ZeroRespect’.

In her response statement to this, Williams apologized to Tempe Police Department for the incident. She said that the company has a deep appreciation for all officers who have been serving for the community. She also admitted that what had been done by the barista was ‘completely unacceptable’ for making the public safety workers felt unwelcome and disrespected. Starbucks had taken necessary steps to ensure the incident would not happen again in the future, she added. At that night, Williams also decided to fly to the city in the hope of meeting with Tempe police chief Sylvia Moir in the following days.

Moir in a separate statement told that her discussion with Williams was focused on deepening relationship which already strongly built between police and Starbucks stores in that area. Through her Twitter account, she also called for not blaming each other and moving toward a positive change.

This is not the first time the giant coffee retail issuing a public apology. More than a year ago, Starbucks had to apologize for calling cops to arrest two black men a Philadelphia store.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/06/us/starbucks-apology-arizona-police-trnd/index.html

Starbucks , Apology , Arizona , Business , Retail , Coffee , Police , JulyFourth