Clarence V. McKee-President, McKee Communications, Inc.
Last week: Starbucks has a new open-door policy where anyone who enters a restaurant, regardless of whether they make a purchase, is considered a customer. It has given an open invitation to social misfits, the mentally deranged, and street dwelling homeless to come in, use the bathroom for any variety of purposes, including washing filthy clothes; and, make themselves at home. The question is how long it will take some Starbucks bathrooms to have the fragrance of many of those in Turnpike and I-95 exit gas stations? Let’s see how consumers accept Starbucks as the “new home for the homeless.”