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Racist Incident Brought Starbucks $16 Million in Negative Press

Racist Incident Brought Starbucks $16 Million in Negative Press

(Bloomberg) -- Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz said this week that investors had questioned the expense of the company’s day of anti-bias training across 8,000 stores, estimated by Bloomberg to cost around $16.7 million in lost sales. But maintaining the status quo would have also been costly.

According to Apex Marketing Group, which measures the value of media exposure, the company suffered nearly $16 million in negative press reports related to the incident in Philadelphia, in which an employee called the police on two black men who were waiting to meet a friend at the cafe. Positive press was worth around $200,000.

Racist Incident Brought Starbucks $16 Million in Negative Press

--With assistance from Nancy Moran.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Janet Paskin at jpaskin@bloomberg.net, Anne Riley Moffat

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