That was the policy put into place to allow all comers, whether the homeless, the drug-addicted, or the general bums to use the store bathrooms without buying a thing. It happened in response to a racial incident with some non-paying customers who wanted to use the facilities, including the table space and the bathrooms, or else "racism." Starbucks was all apologies and bent over backwards to accommodate everyone involved.
Not so fast.
A Texas study finds that actually, there might be a problem, according to this report from Yahoo! Finance:
Starbucks' (SBUX) changes to its bathroom policy appear to be impacting foot traffic for the coffee giant, despite sales that have outpaced expectations, according to recent data.Starbucks was quick to decry the report as nonsense, citing its fine overall store numbers.
Since opening its bathroom doors to the public in the wake of a controversial incident in Philadelphia, the coffee giant has seen a 6.8% drop in store attendance per month relative to other coffee shops nearby, according to the findings of a joint study from the University of Texas at Dallas and Boston College.
"When you throw open the policy to let people come in and just use the bathrooms and the tables, maybe people come in and find the bathrooms are dirty, and the tables are crowded," David Solomon, Assistant Professor at Boston College Carroll School of Management, told YFi PM. "And so they don't buy the coffee as well."