Hello, Starbucks Partners. I'm coming to you today with a very important and timely message.
In many states across the country, it is actually legal to walk into a private establishment with a gun.
Starbucks Coffee Company is not a policy maker, and we are not pro-gun or anti-gun.
But we do believe that guns and weapons should not be part of the Starbucks Experience.
And our customers and all of you will be much more comfortable if our customers
would not bring that gun into a Starbucks store. So effective tomorrow,
we are respectfully asking our customers who are carrying a gun not to bring them inside Starbucks stores.
In addition to that, I think I want to make something really clear to all of you
that I think is really important. This request hopefully will be honored and respected by
people who are carrying a gun and not bring it into the stores. But if in fact they choose
to, I do not want any partner, any manager, any shift supervisor, anyone wearing a green
apron, to confront that customer and either ask them to leave or make them uncomfortable.
You are not there to enforce this new request. I would hope that you would serve the customer
and do what we always have: and that is do everything to exceed the expectations of our customers.
The situation today is an emotionally charged issue that's well beyond Starbucks.
But this year, we have seen people on both sides of the debate mischaracterize and actually
use Starbucks as a staging ground and politicize our company and our brand for their own benefit,
either pro- or anti-gun. We think that is not in our interest and not in the interest
of our customers and all of you. I do not want to in any way convey to you or anyone else
that we are an advocate one way or another on either side of this debate. And as I said,
we're not a policy maker. But we do believe strongly, and I hope our customers will respect
the request and understand that guns should not be part of the Starbucks Experience.
Let me close by saying that I am extraordinarily proud, appreciative, and so respectful of all the things
that you do every single day in serving and exceeding expectations of our
customers and building the Starbucks brand. Our success is totally linked to what you
do every day, the heroic things that happen every single day in our stores.
So I'm sorry in a way that I'm coming to you with this kind of message. But this is a time when we
have to establish the leadership of the company and do what we believe is right for us despite
the fact that there will be people on both sides of the debate who will criticize us for this.
I hope they will understand the request and respect the fact that our customers
will be much more comfortable if guns and weapons are not part of the Starbucks Experience.
Thank you very much.