Starbucks sets anti-homeless policy, requiring people to make a purchase if they want to stay

Starbucks is reversing its open-door policy after almost seven years, now requiring that people make a purchase if they want to hang out at its coffee shops or use its restrooms.

The coffee giant said on Monday that a new code of conduct – which will be posted in all company-owned North American stores – will also ban discrimination or harassment, consumption of outside alcohol, smoking, vaping, drug use and panhandling.

The new rules reverse an open-door policy put in place in 2018, after two Black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks where they had gone for a business meeting. The incident at that individual store, which had a policy of asking non-paying customers to leave, was caught on video and was a major embarrassment for the company.

The change also comes under the new leadership of Brian Niccol, who was hired from Chipotle last year to revitalize the struggling coffee chain. Niccol has vowed to make Starbucks' locations "inviting places to linger," with the goal of reestablishing the chain as the nation's "community coffeehouse."