Starbucks makes customers pay to use the bathroom under the CEO’s new code of conduct

If you want to go outside or use the bathroom at Starbucks, you’ll need to buy something.

Starbucks on Monday said it was changing a policy that invited everyone into its stores. A new code of conduct — which will be posted in all company-owned stores in North America — also prohibits discrimination or harassment, outside alcohol consumption, smoking, vaping, drug use and unnecessary handling.

Starbucks spokeswoman Jaci Anderson said the new rules are designed to help prioritize paying customers. Anderson said most other retailers already have similar rules.

“We want everyone to feel welcome and comfortable in our stores,” Anderson said. “By setting clear expectations for behavior and use of our spaces, we can create a better environment for everyone.”

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

The new rules reversed an open-door policy put in place in 2018 after two black men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia where they had gone for a business meeting. The individual store had a policy of asking non-paying customers to leave, and the men had not 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 denied access.

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

However, since then, employees and customers have struggled with unruly and even dangerous behavior in stores. In 2022, Starbucks closed 16 stores across the country — including six in Los Angeles and six in its hometown of Seattle — over repeated safety issues, including drug use and other disruptive behavior that threatened staff. .

The new rule comes as part of a push by new Starbucks chairman and CEO Brian Niccol to revive the chain’s declining sales. Niccol has said he wants Starbucks to recapture the community cafe feel it once had, before long drive-thru lines, mobile order reservations and other issues made visits more difficult.