A Starbucks official says the stores' bathrooms will soon be open to everyone — whether or not they're a paying customer.
Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz said: "We don't want to become a public bathroom, but ... we don't want anyone at Starbucks to feel as if we are not giving access to you to the bathroom because you are 'less than.' We want you to be 'more than.'"
The decision follows the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks. They were denied use of the bathroom and arrested for trespassing after staying in the store and not purchasing anything while they waited for their third party to arrive.
Starbucks has apologized to the two men and announced it would close its stores May 29 for an afternoon of racial bias training.
But Schultz says the May 29 session is just "the beginning, not the end of an entire transformation of our training at Starbucks."
Additional reporting by Newsy affiliate CNN.
