Coffee House barista Vanessa Boyd noticed business in the downtown shop was a bit more brisk on Tuesday, but had no idea why.
Starbucks' decision to shut down 8,000 stores nationwide to train employees in recognizing human prejudices led those in need elsewhere — to places like the Coffee House — for their afternoon jolt of caffeine.Â
"That explains it," Boyd said of the additional business at the downtown shop. "It actually is making a difference. We definitely noticed an increase in traffic."
The warm weather has put a crimp in business in the last week, said Andrew Osborn, another barista at the Coffee House. After having $700 in sales on Monday, it more than doubled that by 4 p.m. Tuesday.
For Starbucks, it was part of the coffee chain's effort to deal with the outcry over the arrest of two black men last month for sitting in a Philadelphia Starbucks without buying anything. After the incident, the company's leaders apologized and met with the men, and scheduled an afternoon of training for 175,000 employees.
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Starbucks has not said how much the training will cost the company or how much money it expects to lose from closing stores during what is usually its least busy time of day, Chairman Howard Schultz said Starbucks couldn't afford not to do something.
"It's quite expensive," Schultz said Tuesday. "We've had certain shareholders call and say, 'How much is this going to cost and how do you justify this?' My answer to them was simply: We don't view it as an expense. We view it as an investment in our people and the long-term cultural values of Starbucks."
Still, in closing its doors for a day, Starbucks gave coffee drinkers another option, some that might not have previously been considered.
Lincoln resident Lauryn Higgins, in North Carolina this week, had to rework plans to meet with friends for coffee on Tuesday after rolling up to a closed sign at a Starbucks location.
"We ended up googling local coffee shops and found a great local place about 10 minutes from the Starbucks," she said. "It turned out to be a great thing because we gave back to a local business and got out of our normal routine, and I can honestly say now that I have a new favorite place in this town to drink coffee."
Patrick Brown, a regular at a downtown Scooters location, stopped buying his daily coffee at Starbucks long ago.
"I like to support smaller businesses. Starbucks is too big," he said.