In 2018, two black men were arrested in Philadelphia because that Starbucks store had a policy that did not allow people to use their facilities without purchasing something. Social Justice Warriors declared that racist and Starbucks changed their policy. Anyone could use the restrooms and anyone could take up seats, or smoke, or drink alcohol out of a paper bag.
Now, in places like California, where the Governor declared the state a Statue of Liberty for the homeless, people openly panhandle in the stores. Crime is again being enforced in California so there will be more safety for employees now but new CEO Brian Niccol, formerly of Chipotle, has already seen enough. Starbucks used to be a place where writers and groups gathered to have a coffee and work and now in California it is often used for mobile or drive-through. Which means the arts culture that made them great declined. The coffee is expensive and if you don't feel safe in the store, why get the coffee at all? Go to a local shop that won't let hobos yell at you.
Niccol wants to bring that back. I know I rarely take a break and go there now, and not simply because I have a great Breville espresso machine in my house. I like getting out of the house, and Starbucks has world-class machines and the employees are friendly. When I go, it is early, because the problem Niccol sees in rejuvenating it as a place for customers to hang out isn't evident at 6 AM.
Yep, even at 6 AM on a Saturday they are firing on all cylinders.
Am I going at 11, when I used to go? I am not, because I am Gen X and still my father's son, so if some person with a mental health issue grabs me or yells at a child, they're going on the ground, and in Governor Newsom's California I am the problem if it happens.
So I go a lot less, even though I was once their target demographic; a writer who works from his house and likes to leave and enjoy a coffee. When Starbucks was a much smaller enterprise, I'd even buy cups when I visited cities where they existed. My 1994 collection is still in my cabinet right now.
That's right, they were still so small in 1994 that United Kingdom had one mug for the entire island. I would drive my car in whatever city I was in to find if they had a local Starbucks mug.
If they have taken themselves out of my routine, they have really lost their way.
Now Starbucks is taking what that store in Philadelphia did, ask people just using their real estate as a free conference room, or squatting without buying anything, to leave, and making it corporate policy.
Progressive states led the way in that decision. Starbucks closed six stores in Los Angeles and six in Seattle - their hometown - because of rampant drug use and violence. The criminals were not patrons, they were homeless people that moved to those cities and learned they could go anywhere and do nearly anything without recourse. In California, Governor Newsom doesn't even live in the capital city whose crime levels skyrocketed thanks to his policies making business owners the criminals if they don't want their goods stolen. The career "public servant" lives a three-hour commute away, in a $9,000,000 mansion in a progressive enclave on the coast so his kids can attend private school.
Maybe with Starbucks showing California politicians the way, he will see the light when it comes to crime also.
