Starbucks — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Dear Steven, the Manager,

I don't personally know you. I don't know if you are racist, and this letter is not about whether you are personally racist or not. This is a letter about the way you made my kids feel, about the way you made me feel, and about the way you (perhaps unknowingly) perpetuated systemic racism. You made my kids feel dehumanized, unsafe, and unwanted. You made them feel that they did not belong in your establishment simply because they were from another neighborhood and had darker skin than yours. You then put them in danger by calling security and threatening to call the police. You taught them that not all spaces are for them, that some neighborhoods and areas of the city were not designed for them. You made them question the way they speak, and whether they had a right to use their voices at all. You also sent a message that their right to simply exist in some spaces in society is only determined by whether they had money to spend, and that even if they did have money, their money was only as good as their ability to silence and diminish themselves, to comport themselves to fit your culturally conditioned expectations of behavior. So thank you for that lesson in respectability politics.

I don't hate you, and my kids don't either. We are angry at how we were mistreated and condescended to by you. We were upset that rather than talk to us, you outsourced us to security, even after we had already left your establishment. I was upset that you hung up on me on the phone - which was very unprofessional - after I was talking calmly and simply trying to gather information. But like I said, we don't hate you. We talked it over and we decided that we believe in second chances and we want you to learn to do better. We believe in the power of education, perhaps naively, and we want to give you the benefit of the doubt - even though you did not extend this to us. I sincerely hope that your store will send you to cultural sensitivity training and that you will learn to think twice before judging a person simply based on appearance. I know this is just a job for you but for my kids, this is their life. I shudder to think what would have happened had I not been there to speak with security, had I not been there to honor their emotions and validate their experience. The thing is, this is bigger than just you and me. This is about extending the same courtesy and respect to my kids as you would to any other human beings. This is about inclusion. This is about being a gracious host. This is about creating the kind of America we want to live in, and working together to ensure that we move forward instead of backward. I hope you will join me in...

This is not a great Starbucks and the Starbucks company is making a big mistake here. The outside sit down area is not separated from the adjacent incoming traffic from Culver and Venice Boulevard should feels like you're sitting outside in the hood. Why not add some plants or some separation to it to give it a nice experience. They do not seem to care about that a lot of illegals gangsters and Weirdos are sitting there holding down the space looking looking looking and observing. Wildest has been recently remodeled they missed an opportunity. Also the front door doesn't fully latch so the AC is always on blowing and wildest should have been fixed within a day or two it's been 4 months and the employees just shrug their shoulders. They need to be on top of this. So just keep in mind parking is also deteriorated because of sprouts across which is good to be there but if you want to quickly grab coffee this might make it more difficult all in all this needs a conceptual evaluation and need to decide if they want to create a nice calm experience for professional in the area or make it a hub for hoodlums and...

The reason why I am giving a 1 star review is because this Starbucks isn't fair with their bathroom they have. I made a mobile order today around 9:30 am. Picked it up and everything good. I was still around the area around 1 pm and so I went back to this Starbucks location and said hey I bought something earlier, I showed them my order on my phone and then I proceeded to ask if I can use their restroom and this lady replied back saying " well you can but next time you order use the restroom before you leave ." Like what kind of response was that , like I bought something still that same day and still there is a problem with using the restroom. That's not okay. This experience made me feel like even if I buy something I will always have problem with using the restroom. So to this location, you gotta stop treating people like this when using a public restroom. Either be more kind about it or put up a sign that says employee restroom only. Rude attitudes you all have when it come...