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 is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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