Starbucks CEO criticizes America's commercialization of Veterans Day

Starbucks CEO criticizes America's commercialization of Veterans Day
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Despite helming a company perhaps best known for turning even the routine passing of seasons into an inescapable commodity, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is pretty disappointed in America's commercialization of Veterans Day. Speaking to The Washington Post on Monday, Schultz lamented the fact that the holiday "has been turned into a weekend sale... That's not respectful for me."

Starbucks has committed to hire 10,000 veterans over five years, part of Schultz's belief that veterans need to be hired into corporate jobs. He told USA Today that the stigma often attached to veterans — whether it be post-traumatic stress disorder or some other physical or emotional trauma — is ironic given that the veterans he's hired at Starbucks "have done extraordinary things."

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.