close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Starbucks back in hot water

By AFP
July 08, 2018

New York: Starbucks was back in hot water Friday, three months after a branch manager called the police on two black men -- this time for seemingly mocking a customer with a stutter.

When the customer, called Sam, gave his drink order in a Philadelphia Starbucks on June 27 he stuttered over his name.

The barista replied "Okay, S-s-s-sam" and, retrieving his iced coffee, found the label was marked "SSSAM," according to friend and business school student Tan Lekwijit, who reported the incident on Facebook.

When Sam emailed the company to complain, he was offered $5 credit. But Lekwijit said Starbucks had "missed the point" and took to Facebook to "raise awareness".

"It was about how you treat people with speech impairments, not how you write names," he wrote.