Starbucks to close 8,000 US stores for one afternoon for racial-bias training

Women peer inside the closed Center City Starbucks, where two black men were arrested, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania US on April 16, 2018. [Photo by Reuters]

Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) will close 8,000 company-owned U.S. cafes for the afternoon on May 29 to train nearly 175,000 on how to prevent racial discrimination in its stores.

The announcement from world’s biggest coffee company comes as it tries to cool tensions after the arrest of two black men at one of its Philadelphia cafes last week sparked accusations of racial profiling at the chain.