Starbucks chairman says coffee shop 'toilets are open to everyone'

'We don’t want anyone to feel we are not giving access to you because you are less'

Starbucks has changed its toilet policy to allow everyone and not just customers to use its facilities, following outrage at the arrest of two black men at one of its Philadelphia coffee shops.

“We don’t want to become a public bathroom, but we’re going to make the right decision a hundred percent of the time and give people the key,” the coffee giant's chairman, Howard Schultz told the Atlantic Council in Washington DC.

“We don’t want anyone at Starbucks to feel as if we are not giving access to you to the bathroom because you are less than.”

Mr Schultz said the company previously had a “loose policy” that only customers should be able to use the toilets, but it was up to managers to decide how to implement the guidelines.

His statements follow outrage at the treatment of Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson at a Philidelphia Starbucks in April.

Mr Nelson asked to use the toilet, but was refused because he had not purchased anything. He and his business partner explained they were waiting to meet an associate, but the coffee shop staff called the police, who arrested the pair and led them outside in handcuffs.

A video of the incident galvanised people around the US to protest what they saw as modern day racism.

Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson, later apologised on behalf of the company, saying: “The circumstances surrounding the incident and the outcome in our store on Thursday were reprehensible, they were wrong.

“And for that, I personally apologise to the two gentlemen who visited our store.”

The company settled with Mr Nelson and Mr Robinson for an undisclosed sum. The men settled a dispute with the city over the incident for a token $1 and $200,000 (£148,000) for a programme dedicated to supporting young entrepreneurs.

In his Thursday speech, Mr Shultz said the company was “absolutely wrong in every way” in its response to the incident.