0
0

Starbucks to offer new Hep A coffee


 invite response                
2018 May 26, 7:30am   727 views  1 comment

by MisterLefty   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

Starbucks Opens Its Bathrooms. Now It Needs to Keep Them Clean and Drug Free
New policy sparks concerns among customers and employees about cleanliness and safety

Now that Starbucks Corp. SBUX 0.42% has decided to allow anyone to use its restrooms, it faces the critical task of keeping them clean and safe.

That job was a nuisance even before the coffee chain on Saturday said it would permit all visitors to its U.S. company-operated stores to use its cafes, including its restrooms, whether or not they make a purchase.

Managers and baristas regularly deal with a range of problems in the restrooms, from drug use to defecation outside the toilets, according to some current and former employees.

“Drug use wasn’t happening in the bathroom every day, but it was definitely something that was happening once a week. The cops were called a lot,” said Darrion Sjoquist, 21 years old, who worked as a barista at a Seattle Starbucks two years ago.

Once, when he was taking out the bathroom trash, he said he was pricked by a hypodermic needle. He said he and other Seattle baristas asked Starbucks to equip the bathrooms with Sharps containers—the kind of locked boxes found in doctors’ offices—to encourage drug users to properly dispose of their needles.

A Starbucks spokesman said he couldn’t comment on the specifics of Mr. Sjoquist’s experience but that the health and safety of its employees is paramount and that trash cans have been removed from some Starbucks bathrooms.

The spokesman said the company’s new policy requires visitors to be respectful, and to use the cafes and bathrooms properly—and that there are staff guidelines for handling situations when they don’t. Employees should provide a welcoming environment for all guests, he said, and “customers have an equal responsibility to use the spaces as intended.”

One current barista at a Starbucks in New York City said drug use in the bathrooms is a frequent occurrence.

A former Starbucks facilities manager who oversaw several urban stores on the East Coast said those cafes had special kits on hand with rubber gloves, tongs and a box that store employees could use to dispose of needles, adding that employees often found small drops of blood splattered across the toilet and walls.

When bodily fluids or drug paraphernalia are found in bathrooms, employees aren’t expected to clean up, the Starbucks spokesman said. They can call a Starbucks facilities hotline, which in turn can dispatch a local third-party hazardous-materials service to clean up. It is up to local stores to determine their needs, he said.

Maintaining clean and safe bathrooms is particularly important now for Starbucks. The company is facing slowing retail sales and has decided to focus largely on its cafe business after agreeing earlier this month to sell to Nestlé SA the rights to distribute most of its packaged drinks in grocery stores.

“Everything is tied together. If the restaurant management doesn’t keep the restroom clean, things could slip in the kitchen, too,” said Donald Whittemore, 70, of Apple Valley, Calif., a regular Starbucks customer.

Quality of food and kitchen sanitation are critical factors for consumers in deciding whether to go to a restaurant but bathroom cleanliness also ranks high, according to food-service research firm Technomic Inc.

Starbucks ranked 20th out of 62 fast-food chains in terms of bathroom maintenance in Technomic’s latest quarterly customer survey.

Ensuring bathroom cleanliness and safety isn’t a challenge unique to Starbucks. Gas stations, convenience stores, supermarkets and fast-food chains all wrestle with the issue. Some gas stations have installed blue lights in restrooms in an attempt to curb drug use because the hue makes it harder for people to find their veins.

Many chains, including some Starbucks, have installed locks on bathroom doors or require key codes, which they provide only to paying customers. The Starbucks spokesman said stores with coded doors will now provide the code to all customers and that no decision has yet been made on whether to remove them.

“There are not a lot of public bathrooms around unless you’re in a mall,” said Darren Tristano, chief executive of CHD Expert, a food-service market research firm.

The coffee chain’s new inclusiveness policy came a month after a store manager in Philadelphia called the police about two black men who asked to use the bathroom without purchasing anything and allegedly refused to leave when asked. Officers arrested the men. Starbucks executives apologized to the men and settled with them for an undisclosed amount.

Starbucks over the weekend issued updated procedures instructing employees how to identify and handle disruptive guests, including those who are smoking, using drugs or alcohol or using restrooms improperly. The company has instructed its employees to verify with a colleague whether a behavior is disruptive and call the police only if the situation becomes unsafe.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/starbucks-opened-its-bathrooms-to-everyone-and-some-people-are-worried-1527159601

Comments 1 - 1 of 1        Search these comments

1   Ceffer   2018 May 26, 2:57pm  

Great place to dunk pound cake while waiting for the Man.

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions