Starbucks' nationwide bias training will use iPads

"Designated iPads" will be part of May 29 training at more than 8,000 Starbucks locations nationwide.

Shortly after the early April arrest of two African-American men who were waiting to meet a business partner in a Philadelphia Starbucks location made nationwide headlines, the company announced plans to close all of its U.S. stores for a day in order to hold "racial bias training" for all 175,000 of its employees, on May 29. That training will incorporate iPads.

Starbucks will use "designated iPads" in the training, featuring a series of videos that will play on the devices, USA Today reported on Thursday. In a video posted on Starbucks' website, company founder and chairman Howard Schultz is seen addressing employees from an iPad screen.

A MacBook is also seen elsewhere in the video, on a table in front of one of the trainers, Alexis McGill Johnson of the Perception Institute.

According to social media chatter, it appears that Starbucks has purchased a large number of iPads for its stores, specifically for the purposes of the training. A thread on the Starbucks subreddit stated that the company's stores have received two or more iPads, or perhaps as many as five, ahead of the training. Meanwhile multiple Starbucks employees, on Twitter, have stated that their store received two, three, or five iPads for the training, with some of those employees complaining that the company spent that money on the iPads rather than on employee raises or new hires.

It's unclear exactly how many iPads Starbucks bought, what they will be used for after the training, or what type of special deal, if any, the company made with Apple. When AppleInsider reached out to Starbucks for comment, a spokesperson told us that "we'll have more to share next week. Starbucks Newsroom will serve as the main hub for information, content, and assets related to the trainings."

Starbucks' App Store is so popular that it now has more users than Apple Pay, according to a recently released survey.

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30 Comments

macseeker 541 comments · 8 Years

About 6 years ago

Thanks.

racerhomie3 1264 comments · 7 Years

Wow.

nunzy 662 comments · 6 Years

This makes sense. Starbucks knows quality. They sell the world's best coffee, and so they need the worlds best technology.

entropys 4298 comments · 13 Years

nunzy said:

This makes sense. Starbucks knows quality. They sell the world's best coffee, and so they need the worlds best technology.

I remember for the Sydney Olympics the CNN crew stupidly made a big deal about bringing a massive supply of Starbucks coffee beans with them as they could not be sure they could get good coffee outside of USA. The crew were treated with contempt and derision, and given a very hard time for their idea of what made good coffee.

Incidently Starbucks has not done very well In Australia because it is considered too weak and gauche compared with local product, where a variety of smaller, local roasters selling through shops and chains hold sway. Mum and dad coffee shops seem to do better than franchises. Much more variety, which is unusual and interesting when you consider the lack of options and variety of things we usually have in comparison with the USA.

And who puts flavouring in their coffee? Americans can be such Philistines!

tallest skil 43086 comments · 14 Years

entropys said:
And who puts flavouring in their coffee? Americans can be such Philistines!

If you knew the kind of crap that passes for coffee over here, you’d flavor it, too. And I don’t even drink the stuff. I just like the smell. OF GOOD COFFEE. Brand name garbage doesn’t even smell good, much less taste like anything other than liquid burnt.