Starbucks Admits Its Anti-Bias Training Hurt Its Sales

Corporate virtue-signaling may garner lots of media attention and feel really good to liberals to engage in it, but it can also impact a company’s financials.

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Even that day of kumbaya, though, wasn’t enough for the coffee corporation. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz — who has since stepped down — also contacted Heather McGhee of the equality advocacy group Demos and Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP legal defense and education fund for inspiration on more ways the coffee chain could serve up progressive values with some overpriced java.

McGhee and Ifill had several recommendations, including “a top-to-bottom civil rights audit, more resources for employees who encounter customers with mental-health and addiction problems, and the creation of a ‘customer bill of rights’ to be posted at each store,” The Seattle Times reported.

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There are now numbers available for the past fiscal quarter: Starbucks said shutting down its stores for a day lowered comparable-store sales by less than 0.5 percent, the Associated Press reported.

Total revenue for the quarter was slightly below estimates, with the company earning $6.23 billion compared to the expected $6.25 billion. The company said it expects its full-year sales growth to be “just below” its previous target of 3 to 5 percent.

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The number of sales declined, but the amount spent during each visit rose, AP also reported, ostensibly because supporters of the brand spent more inside the locations. Yet the number of visits decreased.

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