Howard Schultz, the chief executive officer of Seattle-based Starbucks, has a problem: How loud can he yell “We don’t have a dog in this fight!”?
The fight is over guns. The dog is any one of his 7,000 stores nationwide, with 187 company-owned stores in Oregon and another 140 licensed outlets, such as those seen in Safeway grocery stores throughout the state.
Last week Schultz, fed up with gun demonstrations at his stores, announced a
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Howard Schultz, the chief executive officer of Seattle-based Starbucks, has a problem: How loud can he yell “We don’t have a dog in this fight!”?
The fight is over guns. The dog is any one of his 7,000 stores nationwide, with 187 company-owned stores in Oregon and another 140 licensed outlets, such as those seen in Safeway grocery stores throughout the state.
Last week Schultz, fed up with gun demonstrations at his stores, announced a no-guns-allowed rule that amounts to a mere branding gesture: There will be no in-store postings against carrying a weapon or enforcements against those who show up with a weapon that is visible to others. Instead, patrons and staff will rely upon the publicized sentiment that coffee houses are sanctuaries between work and home — and, as such, free of fears triggered by those who openly carry their weapons.
Schultz’s disinvitation to bring guns into Starbucks stores or to seating areas outside them is ambiguously crafted.It speaks of guns in general and leaves unmentioned handguns carried quite legally and beyond sight by those holding concealed weapons permits — and there are far more of such folks in Oregon than the yahoos who flash steel in public to make their point. But the message is plain: Schultz seeks to soothe his customers who might fear guns, likely the core of Starbucks’ heavily urban clientele, while remaining nice to gun advocates, who have staged demonstrations at Starbucks stores to purportedly thank the chain for honoring their right to carry openly in most states, Oregon among them.
“We don’t want our patrons to feel uncomfortable,” Starbucks spokeswoman Jaime Riley told The Oregonian’s editorial board. “In general, we’re saying weapons are not welcome.”
In July dozens of armed people gathered at Starbucks in Souix Falls, South Dakota, and last month gun advocates held a nationwide Starbucks Appreciation Day. Niether sat well with Schultz, who heard plenty from worried patrons. And last week, he wrote: “Pro-gun activists have used our stores as a political stage for media events misleadingly called ‘Starbucks Appreciation Days’ that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of open carry.”
Schultz is a business rock star. In growing Starbucks he has shown an uncanny knack for filling holes in the society by monetizing two things: the lure of good coffee and a shared, neighborhood venue in which to enjoy it or at least feel a part of something bigger than the coffee. The result is a ballooning company with massive fortunes at stake: As of this year Starbucks was generating nearly $14 billion annually in sales worldwide, and Forbes magazine ranked Starbucks the world’s 54th most powerful brand, just behind Mastercard and Adidas but ahead of Ford and UPS. That’s a lot of lattes with names or requested ingredients penned onto them.
But guns have crept into the sanctuary, and Schultz’s decree to limit open carry in Starbucks stores is a hair-splitting attempt to have it both ways in a polarizing debate. Competing Peets Coffee & Teaoutright prohibits weapons on the premises, enforceable by a call to the police and hardly a statement that the chain is against guns. Meanwhile retail outlets such as Costco, which markets Starbucks-roasted beans under the house Kirkland label, do not allow their patrons to carry openly. Private property owners — Starbucks is no different — get to set and enforce such rules without worrying whether those rules mean having a dog in the fight.
Schultz’s policy is a test worth watching. A barista at a downtown Portland Starbucks on Friday made clear that any gun-toting patron would be served with a smile — that the new policy as announced by Schultz was a behavior wish more than anything.
We’re all for wishes unless they don’t come true.