Starbucks' nationwide bias training will use iPads
"Designated iPads" will be part of May 29 training at more than 8,000 Starbucks locations nationwide.
Shortly after the early April arrest of two African-American men who were waiting to meet a business partner in a Philadelphia Starbucks location made nationwide headlines, the company announced plans to close all of its U.S. stores for a day in order to hold "racial bias training" for all 175,000 of its employees, on May 29. That training will incorporate iPads.
Starbucks will use "designated iPads" in the training, featuring a series of videos that will play on the devices, USA Today reported on Thursday. In a video posted on Starbucks' website, company founder and chairman Howard Schultz is seen addressing employees from an iPad screen.
A MacBook is also seen elsewhere in the video, on a table in front of one of the trainers, Alexis McGill Johnson of the Perception Institute.
According to social media chatter, it appears that Starbucks has purchased a large number of iPads for its stores, specifically for the purposes of the training. A thread on the Starbucks subreddit stated that the company's stores have received two or more iPads, or perhaps as many as five, ahead of the training. Meanwhile multiple Starbucks employees, on Twitter, have stated that their store received two, three, or five iPads for the training, with some of those employees complaining that the company spent that money on the iPads rather than on employee raises or new hires.
It's unclear exactly how many iPads Starbucks bought, what they will be used for after the training, or what type of special deal, if any, the company made with Apple. When AppleInsider reached out to Starbucks for comment, a spokesperson told us that "we'll have more to share next week. Starbucks Newsroom will serve as the main hub for information, content, and assets related to the trainings."
Starbucks' App Store is so popular that it now has more users than Apple Pay, according to a recently released survey.
Shortly after the early April arrest of two African-American men who were waiting to meet a business partner in a Philadelphia Starbucks location made nationwide headlines, the company announced plans to close all of its U.S. stores for a day in order to hold "racial bias training" for all 175,000 of its employees, on May 29. That training will incorporate iPads.
Starbucks will use "designated iPads" in the training, featuring a series of videos that will play on the devices, USA Today reported on Thursday. In a video posted on Starbucks' website, company founder and chairman Howard Schultz is seen addressing employees from an iPad screen.
A MacBook is also seen elsewhere in the video, on a table in front of one of the trainers, Alexis McGill Johnson of the Perception Institute.
According to social media chatter, it appears that Starbucks has purchased a large number of iPads for its stores, specifically for the purposes of the training. A thread on the Starbucks subreddit stated that the company's stores have received two or more iPads, or perhaps as many as five, ahead of the training. Meanwhile multiple Starbucks employees, on Twitter, have stated that their store received two, three, or five iPads for the training, with some of those employees complaining that the company spent that money on the iPads rather than on employee raises or new hires.
It's unclear exactly how many iPads Starbucks bought, what they will be used for after the training, or what type of special deal, if any, the company made with Apple. When AppleInsider reached out to Starbucks for comment, a spokesperson told us that "we'll have more to share next week. Starbucks Newsroom will serve as the main hub for information, content, and assets related to the trainings."
Starbucks' App Store is so popular that it now has more users than Apple Pay, according to a recently released survey.
Comments
Incidently Starbucks has not done very well In Australia because it is considered too weak and gauche compared with local product, where a variety of smaller, local roasters selling through shops and chains hold sway. Mum and dad coffee shops seem to do better than franchises. Much more variety, which is unusual and interesting when you consider the lack of options and variety of things we usually have in comparison with the USA.
And who puts flavouring in their coffee? Americans can be such Philistines!
Paid for by Starbucks? (i.e.: native advertising, maybe?)
LOL, no doubt! While I suppose, like wine, this is somewhat subjective, I can't stand Starbuck's coffee. Of the big chains, I actually think I like McDonald's the best. But, if you ever get the chance and run across someone from the Middle East, have them make you some Turkish coffee. I've been forever ruined trying to get anything close after that.
Yea, if I ever end up there, I order something else. As I said above, to each their own I guess. Some people seem to like it. People I've known who have run coffee shops or have been involved in coffee often don't think that highly of it either, but maybe that's a conflict of interest.
My current favorite is actually (amazingly to me) some instant stuff from Four Sigmatic that has Lion's Mane and Chaga mushroom extract in it. It doesn't leave me with caffeine jitters, the acidity is neutralized, and it's really good for me, too. Plus, it tastes about as good as anything I can quickly and readily get. Previously, it has been Nabob Midnight Eclipse from the grocery store (not sure if available outside Canada, it's a Vancouver company owned by Kraft) via a French Press.
The problem wasnt that the men were sitting for hours without buying what Starbucks laughingly calls coffee. The problem was that the men were treated differently to white customers who were doing the same thing.
If I am waiting for someone at a Cafe Nero, then I won’t order until they arrive. This seems like a very common practice to me. The men were telling the truth here because the person they were waiting for arrived as they were being led away in cuffs.
As some one of the other customers in this case pointed out, a white man came in and was allowing we’d to use the bathroom without buying anything. The two black men were not, even though they said they were waiting for a friend before ordering. Furthermore, there were other white folk who had been there for some time without ordering. None of them were arrested.
Unusually, the men did not sue Starbucks for millions. They accepted an apology, $1 in compensation, and a $200,000 donation to a local Entrepreneurs Fund (the fund is not theirs).
My work has a similar, anti domestic violence campaign. Clearly a major political campaign. It’s bigger than Ben Hur! There is unconscious bias training, compulsory surveys where it is clear what answers are expected (men are clearly ‘orrible people as a rule), and a public media campaign! I guess it’s so easy to do this with Other Peoples’ Money.
And the worst is it is expected people, at the very least all managers, wear a white ribbon. A stylised white ribbon made into a gold edged badge. I was at an all exec meeting the other day (about eighty people) and I was just about the only one not wearing the ribbon badge. I just said “I’m just like Kramer, I don’t want to wear the ribbon”. It was a bit scary to tell the truth. I felt just like an aristocrat must have felt fronting up to the Committee of Public Safety back in revolutionary France. I was the other. Some people thought I was crazy, especially those on the make, some thought I was painting a target on my back. Most said nothing, some maybe wondering if I was a wife basher, others maybe looked a little shamefaced. I was wondering if someone would stand up to denounce me.
I don’t expect a promotion under current management.