Greeson: Need a potty? Find a Starbucks

FILE- This March 24, 2018, file photo shows a sign in a Starbucks located in downtown Pittsburgh. Starbucks Corp. reports earns on Thursday, April 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE- This March 24, 2018, file photo shows a sign in a Starbucks located in downtown Pittsburgh. Starbucks Corp. reports earns on Thursday, April 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

Over the weekend Starbucks announced a big corporate change.

Sure, serving Folgers and Maxwell House with fancy names and fancy-pants prices was a grande gamble, just like changing the names of "large" and "medium" to some high-brow lingo.

But this isn't about coffee, really. After an ugly misunderstanding in Philadelphia earlier this year, Starbucks announced that everyone can use its restrooms, whether they are customers or not.

photo Jay Greeson

The manager of one of the Starbucks' Philadelphia caffeine cantinas did not allow two visitors to use the potty. He told them the rules, and after some discussion and confrontation, the cops were called.

Arrests were made. Lawsuits were filed. Angst was tossed around on social media like an extra shot of vanilla and two Splendas.

So, of course, in this day and age of reaction, overreaction and then supreme over-Over-OVER-reaction of corporations, Starbucks star-buckled.

The company changed the rules. "Any person who enters our spaces, including patios, cafes and restrooms, regardless of whether they make a purchase, is considered a customer," according to an email Starbucks sent to employees, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The bearded, tattooed hipsters fine-tuning their resumes boasting of an online degree in French poetry can use the salle de bains.

Of course, the Philadelphia incident was unfortunate. And here's betting the two men involved will be well-compensated when all of the legal "i's" are dotted and the "t's" are crossed.

So help me out here. The Reader's Digest version of what happened is this:

Manager follows corporate policy;

Visitors refuse to listen;

Manager asks them to leave;

Visitors refuse;

Cops are called.

How exactly is that inappropriate again? It was a mistake, not a catastrophe of company culture.

It's meaningless now, seeing as Starbucks has waved the green-and-white flag.

A $5 cup of joe - no matter how swanky the name - becomes a little harder to swallow if there's a line of homeless folks waiting to use the facility.

Starbucks for years has had no shortage of freeloaders, be they sucking up the WiFi or sipping on the same FrappaChappaLappaDappaUccino from sunrise to supper.

Now everyone is welcome in the Land of Starbucks, a modern-day coffee house version of the perpetual safe space. In theory, that seems like a grand idea.

Unless of course you are trying to run a business, of course.

Because if these changes hurt the bottom line, well, on Wall Street it's better to be red-faced as opposed to be operating in the red.

It's a pretty safe bet that Starbucks' biggest corporate change in its history could be as much about its clientele as it is policy.

Whether that change is for the better we shall see.

Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-4363.

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