Starbucks changes policy, requires purchases for seating

If you want to hang out or use the restroom at Starbucks, you’re going to have to buy something.

Starbucks announced on Monday that it would be reversing a previous policy that allowed unrestricted access to its stores. The company will now implement a new code of conduct in all of its company-owned North American stores, which includes regulations prohibiting discrimination or harassment, as well as the consumption of outside alcohol, smoking, vaping, drug use, and panhandling.

According to Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson, the objective of these new rules is to give precedence to paying customers. Anderson mentioned that many other retailers already have similar guidelines in place.

“Our aim is to ensure that everyone can feel welcomed and at ease when visiting our stores,” stated Anderson. “By establishing transparent behavioral expectations and guidelines for using our spaces, we hope to cultivate a more positive environment for all individuals.”

The code of conduct warns that violators will be asked to leave, and says the store may call law enforcement, if necessary. Starbucks said employees would receive training on enforcing the new policy.

The new rules reverse an open-door policy put in place in 2018, after two Black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks where they had gone for a business meeting. The individual store had a policy of asking non-paying customers to leave, and the men hadn’t bought anything. But the arrest, which was caught on video, was a major embarrassment for the company.

At the time, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said he didn’t want people to feel “less than” if they were refused access.

“We don’t want to become a public bathroom, but we’re going to make the right decision a hundred percent of the time and give people the key,” Schultz said.

Since then, though, employees and customers have struggled with unruly and even dangerous behavior in stores. In 2022, Starbucks closed 16 stores around the country – including six in Los Angeles and six in its hometown of Seattle – for repeated safety issues, including drug use and other disruptive behaviors that threatened staff.

The new rule comes as part of a push by Starbucks’ new chairman and CEO, Brian Niccol, to reinvigorate the chain’s sagging sales. Niccol has said that he wants Starbucks to recapture the community coffeehouse feeling it used to have, before long drive-thru lines, mobile order backups and other issues made visits more of a chore.