Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz announced that store bathrooms are now open to everyone, whether they’re a customer or not.
The new policy was revealed on Thursday and follows the arrest of two Black men who were waiting for a business meeting at a Philadelphia Starbucks last month, according to CNN Money.
The men had the police called on them when they sat down after a manager told them the bathroom was for paying customers.
Their arrest caused outrage, prompting the CEO to apologize, the manager departing from the company, racial bias training and the men settling with Philadelphia for a symbolic $1 and a promise of $200,000 geared toward a program for young entrepreneurs.
“We don’t want to become a public bathroom, but we’re going to make the right decision 100% of the time and give people the key, 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. We want you to be more than,” Schultz said during a discussion at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
