QUESTION:
Did Starbucks CEO say 'patrons of color' can skip store lines and come out against those denouncing same sex marriage?
ANSWER:
No, both circulating rumors are not true.
SOURCES:
Starbucks spokesperson
You may have come across this trending meme in your news feed. It's a quote from the CEO saying as Starbucks renews its image, patrons of color will be allowed to move to the front of line in Starbucks locations.
To find out if this is really happening, our Verify team reached out to Starbucks. They did have a racial bias training on May 29th.
But as for that quote from the CEO saying now patrons of colors will NOW be allowed to skip to the front of the line, a company spokesperson told WUSA9 researchers this claim, "is completely false and in no way associated with Starbucks."
Also circulating: Rumors alleging a former Starbucks CEO said anyone who didn't agree with same-sex marriage shouldn't buy his coffee. That's false, too.
The guy in question, Howard Schultz, is not currently the CEO. Schultz retired in April 2017, succeeded by Kevin Johnson, the guy you've seen apologizing for the Philadelphia incident.
Still, we traced the former CEO's alleged comments to a Starbucks shareholders meeting.
The meeting was private, but in TV interviews, Schultz explained what happened: a shareholder didn't like the company's strong support of same sex marriage, and Schultz responded.
"All I said to him is that we believe in respect and dignity for all people, the result of the company demonstrating that were on the right side of that debate. If you feel like you can get a better than a 38% return on your money in a 12 month period than you should go and invest in another company," the former CEO explained.
This all happened five years ago before gay marriage was legalized nationally. Starbucks along with Microsoft and Nike came out in support of Washington state legalizing same sex marriage, that's when shareholder got update.
