Why Are Treasure Valley Starbucks Closed Today?

Craving a Frappucino as an afternoon pick me up? You won't be able to get one on May 29. 

We all hit that point in the workday. It's usually about an hour after lunch. You start yawning at your desk. Your eyelids start to get a little heavy as you're staring at your computer screen.  You've got the spirit to power through the rest of the day, but your body doesn't want to.  So what do you do? Make a quick coffee run to Starbucks.

But wait! When you pull up to the drive thru, no one takes your order.  When you walk up to the door, it's locked.  What gives? All company owned Starbucks stores in the country will close this afternoon so that employees can go through racial bias training. We checked the updated hours and it looks like most of the stores in our area will close between 2:15-2:30 p.m.

The training is part of Starbucks's response to an incident in Philadelphia where two African American men were arrested after asking to use the restroom even though they hadn't purchased anything from the menu.  When their request was denied, they still hung out in the coffee house to wait for a third friend to join them.  That's when the manager called police and accused the men of trespassing.

If you really can't fight that frappucino craving, you can still get one at any Starbucks stores located inside a Target, Albertsons or Fred Meyer. Those are licensed stores and the employees are employees of the store, not Starbucks so they will not be part of today's training.