Megyn Kelly is upset homeless people might use the bathrooms at Starbucks now
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NBC's Megyn Kelly expressed concern about Starbucks stores turning into places where homeless people can use the bathroom during a roundtable conversation about the company's new policy to allow anyone to use the facilities, regardless of if they are a paying customer or not. "They're allowing anyone to stay and use the bathroom even if they don't buy anything, which has a lot of Starbucks' customers saying, really? Like, why?" Kelly said. She wondered if "Starbucks are now going to get overwhelmed with people and is it really just a public space or is it not?"
The conversation was prompted by Tuesday's anti-bias training at Starbucks stores nationwide, a decision that followed an incident when a store manager called the police on two black men for "trespassing" when they sat in the cafe without buying a drink.
Kelly received pushback from Jenna Bush Hager, who said: "I think some of these people don't have places to go. I've seen people sit in our local Starbucks here in New York City that are homeless, that don't have another place."
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Kelly dismissed that Starbucks was the "solution," noting that homeless people can go to "churches." She added, "For the paying customers who go in with their kids, do you really want to deal with a mass of homeless people or whoever is in there — could be drug addicted, you don't know — when you're there with your kids, paying for the services of the place?" Watch below via Raw Story. Jeva Lange
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
