Starbucks To Close All Hudson Valley Locations For Racial Bias Training

After a recent incident in Philadelphia, Starbucks will close all stores nationwide for special training.

Starbucks published a press release on their website on Tuesday, April 17, stating that all company-owned stores nationwide would be closed for 1 day for racial bias training.  The recent decision comes after the coffee company faced major criticism for two black men being arrested at a Pennsylvania Starbucks for sitting down waiting for a friend.

Starbucks will close over 8,000 stores on the afternoon of May 29 to provide training to over 175,000 employees, according to the release. The training will also become part of the onboarding process for newly hired employees going forward. All corporate offices will also close for the training.

According to the release, the training is being developed by various national and local experts on racial bias. Some of the people helping create the program are U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The Hudson Valley has multiple Starbucks locations: