Starbucks CEO asks employees to be 'sensitive' to customers amid stock market tumult


Probably worried that people would be using the free WiFi to check their 401(k)s, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sent an email out Monday to 190,000 employees asking them to show sensitivity to patrons who might be feeling "anxiety and concern" over the plummeting stock market.
"Today's financial market volatility, combined with great political uncertainty both at home and abroad, will undoubtedly have an effect on consumer confidence and perhaps even our customers' attitudes and behavior," he wrote. He implored his team to be "very sensitive to the pressures our customers may be feeling, and do everything we can to individually and collectively exceed their expectations."
Schultz has launched campaigns in the past with the goal of improving society, including the maligned "Race Together" initiative that was meant to get customers and baristas talking about racial matters.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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