Starbucks CEO says that boycotts following the arrests of two black men haven't hurt sales (SBUX)

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  • Starbucks CEO said that the company had not seen an impact on sales following backlash over the arrests of two black men at a Philadelphia store. 
  • The company is closing all 8,000 locations for an afternoon in May for "racial-bias education" training, which will likely cost Starbucks millions of dollars in lost sales.
  •  "All companies make mistakes," Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said Thursday. "Great companies learn from them and improve." 

 

Boycotts and protests following the arrests of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks haven't impacted sales, according to the company's CEO. 

"We are not seeing an impact on comp sales becuase of Philadelphia," CEO Kevin Johnson said in a call with investors on Thursday. 

Following the arrests and backlash, Starbucks announced it is closing all of its 8,000 locations across the US for the afternoon of May 29 for "racial-bias education" training. Johnson said the company did not yet know how the closures would impact business, though rough estimations from Business Insider indicate the company will lose roughly $12.4 million in sales.

Johnson also emphasized that Starbucks is "focused on the long term and doing the right thing" following the arrests. 

"All companies make mistakes," Johnson said. "Great companies learn from them and improve." 

Starbucks reported on Thursday that US and global comparable-store sales increase by 2%, slightly beating the 1.9% gain expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Here's more on the Starbucks arrests, backlash, and bias training: 

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