The baristas know your name and you’re on top of every Starbucks Happy Hour. You could say you’ve come to rely on Starbucks — especially since it’s there for you. It’s even open on a majority of holidays, like Memorial Day yesterday. But maybe you noticed that there are Starbucks short hours Tuesday. So, why is Starbucks closing early today?
That’s right, 8,000 Starbucks locations are closing early today, Tuesday, May 29. (Which is an obviously clue that there’s no Starbucks Happy Hour going on today.) But why the Starbucks short hours Tuesday? We break down what you need to know about the program behind the truncated hours as well as how this might affect your coffee shop location.
Why is Starbucks closing early today?
Starbucks is shutting down many of its locations today for racial bias training. The move follow on the heels of an incident at a Philadelphia location of the coffee chain during which two black men were arrested for simply waiting inside the store.
“I’ve spent the last few days in Philadelphia with my leadership team listening to the community, learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it,” said Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson in a press release. “While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution. Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities.”
The training is slated to include 175,000 employees and address implicit bias, promote inclusion and help prevent discrimination and Starbucks is developing the program with help from the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Equal Justice Initiative, among others. Keep an eye on news about the racial bias education program because once it’s conducted at corporate-owned locations, it will be made available to licensed partners. That means even if your locations isn’t following the Starbucks short hours Tuesday, you might see an early closure for training in the future.
The afternoon of training will cost the company approximately $12 million in lost revenue, according to calculations done by Market Watch.
Starbucks short hours Tuesday details
So what do you need to know about the Starbucks short hours Tuesday? For starters, whether your nearest location is one of the 8,000 shutting down in the middle of the afternoon, especially if you’re someone who likes to run out for caffeine to counter that 3 p.m. slump. The training will last four hours.
The specifics of the Starbucks short hours Tuesday will depend on your location. If your nearest location of the coffee chain is participating in the first round of racial bias education, check the Starbucks location finder for information about the specific closing time, which could be anywhere from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST.
