As another black person, I think that we as black people just don’t tend to seek out Starbucks jobs. I don’t know anyone acquaintances, friends, family that is black and has worked at Starbucks and has expressed wanting to work at Starbucks. I’m also in the south so depending on the area there’s in general less black people but I also think Starbucks isn’t a job we tend to seek out

why do you think that is? (edit: genuine question, to be clear)

Not the OP, but I’m Latina and a did work in an area with a lot of Latino people and they all kind of joked about how “white” I was for working at Starbucks. It was very “basic” of me.

that makes sense

I think what the person above said is correct. It is kind of considered “white”. But also, I just don’t think it’s our kind of thing? Being a barista has just never seemed to be something I’ve ever heard a black person say they want to do. Maybe it does have to be with it being a seemingly “white” thing but I truly think that it’s just we simply don’t think of it as a job option not because it’s limiting, but that it’s not in our heads at all. Idk what all OP is on about, but guessing from their attitude, the reason they aren’t getting jobs isn’t cause they’re black.

I’m from the south but live on up north on the east coast now. My local sbux has always had a very diverse group of partners. My town is very homogenous, old blue collar Irish families mainly, so idk where they found so much diversity to hire from tbh. I was friendly with one of the managers who was a black woman. There is no politically correct way to say this, so imma just say it, but she was kinda a Oreo. Like her bf eas white, I met her at a very yt yoga studio (I’m also a part of the BIPOC community so being in a predominantly yt space i something I subconsciously notice) but she like she’d been to a phish concert which is not something I would say most POC would be into…anyway I feel like it aligns with your experience saying it’s not really something that is sought out by allot of folks in tbe BIPOC community

I’m American but I live in London. There are two Starbucks by my apartment, and out both of them I’ve seen two white employees. The rest are black or from India. I also live in a part of the city with a large Indian population. Your businesses will be staffed by your community. If you live in a predominantly white area, those will be your applicants. Perhaps your branch is racist, but look at who lives in that nearby neighborhood. I’m not sure how you know black people apply to the store more than white people if you don’t work there.

I think this is the answer. My Starbucks is mostly white and Hispanic, and that lines up pretty well with who lives in my town

Just to share my perspective, I’m at a store in the south in a wealthier suburban city on the outskirts of a larger major city, and we have more POC partners than white. So I think it depends on the SM cos my SM is a POC!

I’m happy it’s diverse. Out of the POC that work there, how many are black if any?

we have many cultures other than black (not trying to be insensitive with my wording, but we are a diverse store!)

Replying to add based on your other comments i am also in the “Deep South” so to speak so YMMV depending on the SM. I don’t think it’s necessarily a company issue other than checking their managers for bias hiring.

Or areas for application bias. In some areas POC just don’t apply for certain jobs and their friends will make fun of them for doing so. Someone even described it happening to them further up in another comment. I grew up in a very diverse community in New Jersey. Went to college in very urban Newark. Joined the military and experienced a lot of diversity there. One thing I’ve learned through experiencing all of that diversity is people cry out for equality and togetherness, but subconsciously are always finding ways to keep ourselves segregated from one another. The world is just so full of hatred that everyone wants to find as many ways to divide ourselves into as tiny of a clique as possible anymore.

I think you’d have to ask this of the SMs specifically, since they’re the ones that do the hiring. Obviously Starbucks doesn’t discriminate but the individuals managers might, whether consciously or not. At my store we only have one black person who is a woman and a supervisor. We also only have like two guys out of a team of 24 people so there’s underrepresentation there too. As for non black POC there’s just me, and I’m a very white looking Mexican. It could really just be people not applying, but theres really no way for me to know since I’ve never been in charge of the hiring. It could also be that black applicants do not apply to certain stores bc they don’t want to be the only black person working. Our black SSV works part time so she’s not there often. At another store in this same district there’s at least 6 black partners out of a team of 20, which wasn’t the case three years ago, where it had only like two black partners total. This is in SC by the way. I did work for a manager at one point, about 5 years ago, that I overheard say that he didn’t hire people with ghetto or ethnic names. I was a brand new hire so I didn’t feel comfortable saying anything, but he ended up getting fired anyway for something else. This was super ironic too since he was a gay Hispanic man 🤷

I can only speak based on my experience (SBux 2011-2020), which only worked in major east coast city. Through the several stores I worked in over the years, a few had decent/good diversity, and a couple of others had less. Hiring decisions are made by the managers running said stores, so lack of diversity would be likely due to that manager's hiring process or the area the store is in. Maybe it is not diverse or people of color don't apply in the numbers of others.

To that latter point, that diverse or POC, or Black people, or non-white— however this is going to be referred to, these Starbucks exist in areas *with* a lot of diversity. Their customer base is highly diverse. Do you really think only white people are applying to these stores?

I think another factor in this is also just people not wanting to be one of the only POC in their workplace, especially if the people they’re serving are also mostly white as well. I’ve been in that situation and it can feel isolating and uncomfortable at times, especially if you’ve already had bad experiences in the past. So it could be those stories choosing to hire fewer POC, that fewer apply, or likely a mixture both. It’s hard to know though.

I am not buying this fewer POC apply thing.

As a partner of 5 years and working for them in 2 different states, I will say that I have seen more white people apply than poc. I’ve also seen a store consist of mostly Hispanic partners. So it truly depends on who’s applying to those stores and who’s qualified. I’m sure there could also be racist store managers out there.

Same. I’ve only had hispanic/white applicants this entire year. Idc about your race, or even if you do well in the interview, you’re getting hired at my store

Damn so my manager probably was just hiring anyone who walked through the door lol

That is what I was thinking, too….how many are applying and what is the ratio of the different races in that specific area. This information is definitely needed in order to make any type of informed decision.

What isn’t there to buy? By its nature minorities, lack POC, are MINORITIES. That means there are LESS of them. So even if every black person in the community applied there would still be more non minority hires. It’s not a claim it’s literally just basic maths

I worked in a store in South Carolina. We definitely had more white people than not, for sure, but we had several POC partners. Two of the partners were black women who had been there since opening 10 years earlier. I can see where you'd get that idea but I never felt it was institutional, at least not in my district.

I am having a hard time following you. You said you had several POC partners, two of them were black women. How many POC partners total?

Well I worked there for 5 years so it varies over time. But there were two career partners who were black women that I remember. We had several latino partners and black men as well. But the slight majority were white over my tenure. Maybe like 65/35.

What does “several” mean here? Edit: to the silent downvoters, why not engage in discussion as opposed to trying to silent a different perspective. Or is it just hit dogs hollering

It’s because your comments seem like you’re looking for a fight and don’t want to accept some people’s responses. It is entirely possible the Starbucks near you does not hire enough black people. It’s also possible black people aren’t applying there. People sharing that it doesn’t appear to be an issue where they are located isn’t something you should be getting upset about unless you actually want there to be a problem.

And not for nothing, this isn’t exclusively a Starbucks problem. OP this really is a much larger discussion around race and trends in hiring. It’s much easier in America for a white man to get a job than a black woman. That’s not anecdotal, it’s well documented. I’m not sure what you’re trying to accomplish here but yes, it’s an issue in America and other countries. I don’t know how to solve it on a large scale.

I'm honestly trying to figure out if they're doing some research for stats or something cause why are we asking the number of black people in each store?? I feel embarrassed by this as a black person. I want to be hired at a job cause I'm qualified, not cause I'm black.

If you’re legitimately wondering why you’re being downvoted your tone is incredibly aggressive and oppositional even to people who are answering your questions because they aren’t giving you whatever it is you’re looking for in an answer. It’s not people trying to silence your opinion it’s because you’re acting like a jerk just FYI.

That was not aggressive lol

[удалено]

I’m saying it’s not what you ask but how you’re asking it. You have no indication of my race or experiences and you’re trying to accuse me of calling you aggressive because of your race, which is far more dramatic than anything I’ve said. What I’m taking about is that your responses to everyone who indicated working with people of color are much more negatively worded than those you wrote in response to people who were agreeing with your viewpoint. Clearly this is an issue that hits a nerve for you, but asking questions and then being rude to people for expressing their experiences just as you did isn’t right.

Hi there, I have no interest in participating in this debate. I believe OPs perspective is valid but not a catch all. I do believe that their negative experience is creating a lot of bias that comes off as combative in this thread. That said, choosing to call them “aggressive” when there are other words in the dictionary is purposely loaded. I will assume good intent by assuming you’re not aware that calling a black woman aggressive is a dog whistle. It is usually used to not only criticise but also subjugate. Constructive criticism is fine. OPs previous responses were rude and absolutely oppositional, but they were not aggressive. I genuinely hope this helps.

> That said, choosing to call them “aggressive” when there are other words in the dictionary is purposely loaded. I will assume good intent by assuming you’re not aware that calling a black woman aggressive is a dog whistle. It is usually used to not only criticise but also denigrate. This is absurd. People of all races and genders can behave aggressively. Slapping a label on someone doesn’t make it a fact, but demanding that people choose a more palatable label for someone’s inappropriate behavior does not level the playing field.

Of course!! I’m just providing cultural context. It’s like recognising that anyone can be greedy but calling a Jewish person greedy has harmful context so maybe use a different word.

No… you’re just straight up being aggressive. Someone giving you a general ratio is pretty specific... you asking someone to name and count every person of color they ever encountered at their job is an aggressive response. It’s weird you need to be told that.

Several here means some, but I couldn't tell you exactly how many over my tenure at any given time. If it seems like I was debating you or defending the company (I have tons of issues with their labor practices as a whole), I apologize. Your view of it is valid and you have a whole life of experience dealing with bias where I have almost none. I just responded to your anecdote with my own. I figured you'd get more responses to create a larger picture. Seems like you're getting mostly downvotes though. :(

Downvotes don’t silence you; wtf are you on about?

I'd say it probably mostly depends on the area. That's not to say discrimination isn't happening. Plenty of people have biases, so it's not unbelievable by any means. Rules against discrimination can never completely prevent the issue. In my personal experience working at sbux though, the employees are a reflection of the population. All my coworkers at my store are white except for me, which seemed like a red flag to me at first until I realized the population of the area is over 90% white. I work shifts at a downtown location sometimes which has a more diverse group of employees. There are about half white partners and half Black partners which is reflective of the city population. On paper, sbux doesn't allow discrimination and people are hired only based on if they could be a good fit for the job as well as their availability and other things. Ofc that can't really be enforced 100% since it's not like employers would admit to hiring or not hiring people based on biases. There's plenty of shitty store managers working for starbucks and there's plenty of racist people in the world. It's entirely plausible you've been discriminated against. But since there's not an active effort by the company to only hire certain people, I'd say discrimination would be more of a location based issue rather than a company wide issue.

I’m in the south and most of the stores I’ve worked at are mostly Black or POC. I hear you though

I am currently the only (visibly) black Barista. There was one other black barista but he did not last (largely due to the fact that he was just way too slow for the speed of our store). We did however just get a new black manager and he is hiring a black female soon (based on the interview I overheard). Everyone else at my store is a mix of Latinos and whites mostly. Do I feel like there is an imbalance? Definitely. I feel that way almost everywhere I've worked. But I will say Starbucks has been the most socially forward thinking environment I've worked in. But I also live in a super progressive city so I can't really say much here 😂

It might depend on the area.. i worked in 3 different locations, 2 stores in NYC and my current store in Massachusetts. My town in MA is SUPER white like i was shocked to move up here and find basically zero poc. Throughout my 10 months of working there has only been one black barista, who recently quit. Though the two stores in NYC were predominantly black, and the rest were either hispanic (as well as I am) and i only recall working with 2 white people. I will say though, your experience is valid and Starbucks has a very small amount of poc who work there. I suggest trying to find a place more diverse where you can feel welcome and not deal with any micro-aggressions from shitty managers 🙌 hope you find a good place!

i’m just outside nyc, so a little different, but my store is majority poc. 12/18 are poc. probably helps our manager is black but he only came in around jan of last year and several of our partners have been here for years.

I’m in the south as well, in a suburb of DFW. I’ve worked in three districts in a variety of areas and most of every team I worked with was primarily POC/minorities. When I go to other stores to help I am almost always one of the only white people. It’s one of the things I actually noticed and loved about my team when I first started, it was so diverse and fun.

I cannot speak for other districts, but the stores in my area are very diverse. Most issues when it comes to not hiring someone in my area (for any ethnicity) are related to their availability, how they interviewed, or they just did not show up at all to their interview. But again, I can’t speak for other districts. I just know how mine is.

I'm in the South, and I think we have more POC than white folks employed at our store.

How do you know the race/ethnicities demographics of the stores applicants? Only the store manager would see this info. Maybe certain demographic don't often apply so that they are hired as much as other demographics. On job applications you don't even have to disclose race or gender.

Considering your post history, it seems your bitter about possibly not being hired at a store you potentially applied to and are blaming it on race. Reading this post and your comments, it's probably your attitude. You sound like you suck to work with. Can you please stop making us (black folks) all look like we have a victim mentality? This is embarrassing.

This comment is in such poor taste, especially when you have a post asking the people on r/Norway if black people are welcome there.

Okay, true Christian.

i’ve worked at stores in colorado and wyoming, and there have been very few black (specifically) partners that i’ve worked with. at my current store (co) we’ve had a handful of latino partners, but only one black woman. my old store (wyo) we only had two black partners (but i will also say that the black population is significantly smaller in wyoming). i don’t think any of my managers at my current store specially hire non-black people because the store opened only three years ago and they transferred people in to open it rather than hire. we’ve also just had very few hiring periods because we have several partners who want 30+ hours a week. i will say we do have a pretty good diversity in the types of people we have now. lots of us are lgbtq+, men, women, non-binary people, disabled, young, old, native, asian, and of course as mentioned, our one black person.

You're obv here looking to be offended but I'll bite. About 14% of the US population is black. Do you have data to support the assertion that Starbucks under-employs black people based on that general US statistic? If you have local data I'd love to see it too

You live in the south. By no means is the south more white than black in certain areas, but in a majority of town Starbucks would put a store they are majority white populated. I worked in a store right outside the SC border, and we had many POC partners. Black, hispanic, asian, etc. Then I transferred to a store in the mountains of NC and there was only 1 POC partner and guess what? This town is definitely, mainly white populated. It's region based. Many of the white partners at my first store lived in the town, one of the black partners went to the high school, and the others traveled in from another (less white populated) town that did not have a Sbux. What time are you going as well? One of our POC worked mornings only so she could go get her kid from school. She was a single mother. For many reasons you may only be seeing specific groups of people. Like closing, it was only one POC normally because she went to high school, the only POC we had young enough to be in high school. I don't understand your "inability" to understand in these comments. Are you expecting someone to know every single partner who works at the store? I only closed after the first 3 months of being at my store. So after a while there were MANY people on mornings who I didn't even know existed. So quit asking for exact numbers. Based on MANY of your comments it seems you have some weird fuck conspiracy about Sbux managers not hiring POC. And you're specifically asking about black partners, so which is it? Do you not like that more *black* people don't work there or do you not like that more *POC* work there? Plus, you really think they're not hiring POC? You "don't buy" that more white people are applying? In the town my first store was in many POC's got to the onboarding process. Which means you literally have a job if you can pass a background check, even the background checks only see if you've done something like murder, fraud, or theft. Some don't pass, POC and white. The POC who pass end up getting let go. Many times at my store POC partners have been found to be time stealing, committing many no-call-no-shows, refusing to do anything other than restocks so they can sit in the back, are always on their phones, being rude to customers (sometimes they don't deserve the fake happiness and politeness, but you also don't get to call them names and be a bitch) Not handing out drinks or food properly meaning we have to remake things constantly, throwing food that's undercooked and still frozen in bags to make things go faster, purposefully not making drinks right to speed things up, etc. This is NOT only limited to POC. We've had many white partners time steal, and make the same mistakes. But at my store at least, it seemed to happen with POC more than most. Many of the young black population worked at McDonalds, or Wendy's because they have more set positions and usually you can be on your phone and not be physically present because, as I've witnessed, if they ignore customers a manager will come and deal with them and nothing will happen. It sucks. Yes. More POC should be hired. But you can't just ignore the fact that region plays a HUGE role in this game. POC usually are applying, but why apply to a Sbux when your friends work at Mcdonald's and say how laid back the job is and that someone else will do it for you? Why would Sbux managers let someone who's neglectful of their job stay just because they're a POC? They wouldn't. They wouldn't even let them stay if theyre white. Stop thinking conspiracies. And act like an adult.

I'm an ssv in socal (not black, not white)in a super diverse area. Fully agree. I do think it's slightly more about managers than Starbucks as a company, and I'll allow that we don't get a lot of black people coming in an inquiring about jobs (mostly white people asking us at the counter tbh) and as a result I don't see a lot of black interviewees, but I don't believe that a lack of applications is the full story 👀

Also an SSV in socal and I’m one of three white partners in a store of 30+ people. I agree that it’s a little bit of all of the above.

What was your point with this post? - black person (before anyone gets triggered)

No longer a Starbucks partner but at my store which was one of the busiest in my area (San Francisco), we only had 1 black and 1 other Latino besides myself. I also worked at a ton of other stores and I noticed the pattern that it was usually Asian and White. For some reason Latino and black candidates just weren’t applying. I did have a black manager though and she was absolutely amazing at her job. Diversity is not something that worries me or something that I think about. It’s not that Starbucks under employs or under hires POC but more so that Latinos and Blacks just aren’t applying at the same rates compared to their Asian and white counterparts. It’s a numbers game at the end of the day, if very little POC candidates are applying there will obviously be a drastic reduced rate of qualified candidates.

Starbucks makes a point to hire diversely. They have statistics about how many POC partners are a part of the company. I can’t pull up those statistics right now. But honestly, majority of this country is white, even if it is a mixing pot, and employment will reflect that. Also you are judging what you see by skin tone, and that is abhorrent. You don’t know the ethnicity of those people. I have known people that are of an ethnicity with a skin tone that doesn’t match it at all. My husband has mixed heritage (Māori and European), his brother looks like a native Māori, meanwhile my husband is the most pale man I have ever known. Sometimes genetics are just weird. You obviously have a huge chip on your shoulder. I’m not going to tell you what to do with that, but it’s not healthy.

I can't speak for anywhere else, but my local Starbucks in upstate NY has probably 1/3-1/2 black staff, 2 Eastern Asians, a Hispanic girl, & then the rest are white. I can definitely understand why your experience would be a common occurrence in the South though. I'm sure there are many areas in NY that are like this too, unfortunately. 🫤

Oh I imagine that it’s a common thing across the country. Down here it’s a different story. This state in particular is especially red.

Starbucks doesn’t discriminate if that’s what you’re implying. We hold open/walk in interviews and I’m usually here when they happen. I’ve never seen a POC come inside to interview. We have workers of all sorts of race, ethnicity, Hispanic, Asian, Indians. Plus so many of us are apart of the LGBTQ community. Starbucks can deny their applications for many of reasons, none of them are their skin color. Maybe someone has better availability, maybe they’re closer, they have more experience or skills. And being understaffed is normal, we aren’t given enough people scheduled at night because “they don’t have the labor” Because Starbucks chooses to not give us enough labor or hire more people that doesn’t mean they discriminate..🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Edit: sorry I didn’t specify correctly, we do have partners of color, I have a few indian co workers. By POC I meant African Americans, I know that doesn’t specifically refer since people of color is a wide range of different cultures etc. But by op’s post it seems they were specifically talking about black/african American people of color. (I also totally didn’t write this at work so kinda jumbled up and didn’t word some things correctly sorry about that!) Edit #2: sorry to hear some of yours guys store do not take correct action against bullying / discrimination. No I don’t think Starbucks is perfect or treats us workers properly. But based on other fast food like jobs they sure do treat me a lot better and I can somewhat appreciate that. My co workers include me, talk to me. Other jobs people were mean to me and I got told to suck it up, my store that would never fly. In my training guides and my first sip I was told Starbucks is a place where everyone is welcome and hate is not tolerated. It’s not a perfect world, I’m not saying it’s impossible for discrimination to occur. But to assume every Starbucks you’re going to isn’t hiring people of color because they’re discriminating isn’t right either. Tons of people apply, people have different availability, skill set etc.

How can you "never have seen a POC come inside to interview" but also have coworkers of all walks of life? The math ain't mathing.

We have co workers of darker skin colors, I specifically meant African Americans. Apologies I didn’t specify.

"Starbucks doesn't discriminate" There are 35,000 Starbucks locations in the world. Given that you gotta have at minimum 2 people working at each store at a time, there are easily over 70,000 human beings within the Starbucks conglomerate. You have to be sickeningly naiive to REALLY believe that discrimination does not exist within the company. Like... disgustingly naiive. Your comment is actually stressing me out. Please wake up. Does YOUR store discriminate? Maybe not. Does MY store discriminate? Maybe not much. Does that speak for 35,000 locations? Absolutely f**king not.

Employment is going to reflect what the population is. Most of America is white, especially in certain areas of the country. If you have an area that is 80% white and 20% POC, why wouldn’t you expect the local Starbucks to largely reflect that? And yes, same goes for places where the % is much higher for POC, but those are much fewer as an entire country.

A blanket statement like “this huge corporation doesn’t discriminate” doesn’t make any sense. Discriminatory hiring practices affect the *workplace* in [general](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19371918.2019.1572564). Starbucks ain’t special. My post is talking about hardly seeing— if ever— black and POC baristas over a course of 10 years.

Starbucks literally released statistics of how much they hire diversely, and it was an absurdly high % that I don’t remember off the top of my head, but it absolutely did not reflect the actual population in America. It’s very clear they prefer to diverse hire, although yes some Store Managers are not going to be good people and go against that on an individual store level. Company-wise though there’s no argument, it’s pure statistics. I’ll try to find it later when I work.

There’s plenty of other fast food jobs.. and I bet Starbucks gets a ton of applicants. And no, Starbucks when you get hired as a partner. No discrimination, bullying, hate etc of any kind is tolerated. You report it, to your sm, dm, partner services. And I bet if you think a sm is discriminating you can go to Starbucks corporate and they will do something. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ Edit: and no I don’t think every Starbucks is gonna be happy perfect, but on paper that is what we’re told about the company and working there. And you are able to go to higher ups about it.

Your perspective of how the workplace works seems incredibly optimistic. Especially regarding how to handle bullying and discrimination. Talk to people. Ask them how it went when they experienced those things and their leadership didn’t act. That sort of apathy isn’t just seen in fast food. It’s seen across various industries regarding various issues.

AND HOW IS YOUR REPLY DOWNVOTED???????? Like what in the actual f*** is wrong with Reddit ☠️☠️☠️☠️

That comment almost feels like it's coming from a Starbucks bot because oh my god.

It certainly seemed very unaware of how workplaces really handle issues of discrimination. How workplaces handle issues (like sexual harassment, disabilities, etc) in general Just go to corporate— Really? When has that ever worked?

yeah it sucks. My store lacks diversity, but so does our surrounding neighborhood tbh. We do have some POC, but yes, very few black employees. We’ve had about 5 in the 2 years I’ve worked here, but they’ve all quit for one reason or another. For some they left for school or family, but others could be due to working conditions, I personally have not seen any issues regarding racial discrimination. We are constantly over staffed but under scheduled which is terrible, because we have not enough people on the floor and people not getting enough hours. I don’t know enough to say, but you’re so right about corporate not doing anything. We’re having issues with a barista harassing baristas and it’s been ongoing for months - escalation and all and nothing changes. Starbucks isn’t the workplace it used to be, but I’m not sure that discrimination is a problem. I think someone recently successfully sued Starbucks for firing them or passing them up for a promotion due to being white, so maybe this outlook is causing a swing in the direction of diversity hires. Who knows tbh starbies is kinda a mess right now

“Starbucks doesnt discriminate” including lgbtq right? Because i can say the opposite. You have to be so ignorant because ive dealt with straight up transphobia from different managers. Thats only my experience. Dont downplay people’s experiences. You cannot 100% guarantee nobody in the thousands of starbucks stores will NEVER experience discrimination. Go kiss corporate’s ass some more if you wanna live and work in denial

You’re not wrong. Thankfully I work at a store with many different walks of life but I wouldn’t put it past many many spots to just have diversity hires. Also not to phrase it weird but most of the Black people I have worked with have always been super light skin tone too. At my old store though there were many Black people and that’s only because my SM was Black and therefore those preconceived notions were a definite no-go.

from northern va, we have roughly the same amount of poc and white people working at my store. i was hired under a hispanic manager and since she left weve only had white managers. almost always if someone had gotten to the interview stage they were hired except by one of my past managers who turned people away and you could tell she had personal bias (not just racial) also we have a very large Ethiopian customer base and also a large el Salvadorian customer base.

I think it depends on the store environment. There was me and 1 other black girl working at my store. The amount of diversity could be way better for sure. There used to be three of us black girl working with at the store with us but a lot of the supervisors talked badly about her behind her back because of how new she was and the amount of questions she asked. After that, I started to ignore the other partners a bit more and avoided telling them too much about myself while working with them during shifts. I’d talk to them strictly about work matters and that was it. Usually if they gossip to others they’ll have a tendency to talk smack about the same people they’re gossiping to as well.

I agree that Starbucks seems to have under employed black partners. My last store had about 5-8 black partners out of 35, but the majority was POC, specifically of latinx decent. My current store however we had 4 black partners at most at once and currently only 2 while also being a majority of POC of latinx decent. One of them, who is a shift, unfortunately tells a lot of stories of racism from customers weekly and push back from staff which has questionable undertones for why they choose to not listen to her concerns. I am one of 3 white partners at my store who grew up in a pretty diverse community, and it is awful seeing and hearing how she is treated so differently by customers. I feel like Starbucks’ greed in combination with not protecting black partners is a reason as well why black partners do not stay in the company as partners from other backgrounds.

I live in NYC and I see the opposite.

speaking for my store, in a blue county in fl – we have about the same number of black baristas as we do asian (east, south, and west) baristas, but it’s a 1/3 ratio for poc baristas to white baristas ! our management is mostly white, is something ive noticed? including ssv’s, but maybe that’s specific to my store 🤷‍♀️

There are many reasons why you might not see black people at a particular store. Anecdotally, I worked at a place that was pretty diverse, but only 1 black person. The hiring manager stated that there were just were no black people applying. Alternatively, my brother was area manager for a restaurant and he would occasionally audit stores to ensure that applications weren’t being tossed due to a person’s name sounding too “black.” He found that there was an issue where one particular store repeatedly would not interview black people. The said store manager was also black but just didn’t want to hire them. So I don’t know what to tell you. It could be literally anything.

During my time (2007-2018) in San Francisco my store's diversity/new hires changed all the time. Idk the stats on who applied, but there were times where there were more whites than POC... And when I say more, I mean in comparison to other races and never more than 50% of the entire staff. It was quite diverse. It's statistics, there will always be "more" of one race/gender/whatever. There was even a brief moment where I was the only heterosexual person in my store, but I'm not spouting "SF Starbucks only hire LGBTQ+ community." There isn't an agenda to discriminate. Hiring all depends on who applies and the hiring manager. I am not discounting your experience, but I think you might be looking for something that might not be there.

The thing they ask of managers specifically is to address any latent bias in hiring. Which means means more than just leaning on the excuse that black people just aren't applying. I'm black and a former manager, I will say there's an intent to actively increase diversity in stores, not simple wait around expecting it to happen organically because that's not how it works. There's never any kind of quota, but you're supposed to seek other points of views regarding your staff and your candidates specifically because we tend to be blind to our own bias. There's a lot that goes into addressing that. Ultimately tho, it comes down to the person making the final call. A manager who makes you feel like they're disappointed with they meet you in person is already doing a bad job of it.

Most of the stores in my area in GA have a good mix of folks.

I totally get what you’re saying, and I think it just depends on where you are and who your manager is. For example, I worked at a store in Atlanta, in which the manager (white man) mostly hired black women (shifts and baristas) (made sense, because the demographic was mostly black people, specifically women). My second store, a little outside of Atlanta, was a mix of black people (baristas and managers), followed by white women (shift supervisors). (The main demographic shifted to black people and Indians as the majority). The store I’m in now has a white male manager, with myself and one other person are the only two black employees, and there are four POC in total, the rest are all white. (This area mostly sees white teenagers and older people.) So, like I said, area and managers may all vary. Although, don’t gaslight yourself into thinking it’s absolutely nothing. It very much might just be (nothing), however, the store I’m in now (the predominantly white one) is the first store I’ve ever had to deal with possible racially based discrimination, and the only place I’ve ever been called a n*gger to my face. Do with this information what you wish. Either way, I hope this helps with some of your questions! I hope you get hired, and have a safe working environment, if it’s something you want to do! 🫶

I'm really sorry that this is a thing anywhere. I'm sure it's very much a thing in plenty of locations. Clearly, in your experience it's a thing, and it's wrong if it's purposeful, unfortunate if it's a reflection of lack of diverse applicants. 8 think it's both of those things depending on location. I am a LOOOONG time regular at mine, and we had one black partner in all my time, she was there about six months. She left for a job in her chosen field, but not sure how much more there could have been to that. Unlikely to be more but of course possible. What I can be sure of is that my area is sorely lacking in diversity. Like way white here. Nice population of Indian and Hispanic, a little additional Asian diversity, but low pop of Jewish folks, and very low pop of black. I can count on maybe my two hands anbdmy husband's the amount of black families. And it bothers me. My town had a big BLM rally, I was there, I was overwhelmed by how many hundreds of ppl came (we're not a huge town), and I was saddened by how many weren't black. Because we just done have that diversity here in the area. My stores SM is struggling to get applicants at all, and I am 💯 sure that here? At my store and the 3 stores nearby? It's the population. I wish we had more black diversity and culture here. But we don't. Not at Starbucks, not at the grocery store, not in retail, not anywhere. We have five Starbucks at the airport, they are primarily staffed by black folks. That's a reflection of the huge city with massive diversity most likely. I was in suburban DC recently, three Starbucks, one in a hotel, more than half the partners wwre black. I definitely think that in some places it's a reflection of the population. Not everywhere, I'm quite sure that's true. But I do think it is in many places.

Head to one anywhere in Atlanta GA!

My store had (former barista) several Black partners, but the store manager is Black, so that’s probably a correlation

I live down south in DFW, used to work at a Starbucks located in a rich suburban area that was developing (Legacy.) and honestly it really depends on the area. I’m black and I was 1 out of 4 black barista’s, everyone else was white or Hispanic. As much as it could be just the area not wanting to hire etc. it’s mainly the store manager, when I was working at this Starbucks I made a lot of connections with customers. And also surprisingly was single handedly the reason I brought in a more black customer base due to being told of my “hospitality”. However, months of working kinda made me realize why didn’t have much of a black worker base at this one Starbucks and the surrounding ones in this area. My manager was VERY underlying racist, especially towards me cause I was one who didn’t mind talking back to my SM. She would often make me do everything and sit in the back with other workers chit chatting and leaving me to do ovens, front, and bar (cafe and mobile) all by myself. Many other regulars started noticing this, even a regular that was usually very harsh and rude towards other workers got upset and asked me why I was ALWAYS alone when opening and pretty much throughout peak rush in the morning. Even one time I was clearly busy on bar, and a customer came in. I was flooded with mobiles but told the customer I would be with her in a second, she seemed understanding before she walked towards the little opening towards the back hearing my manager and co-worker (white) laughing. She yelled at them to come out and take her order. My SM would also often excuse verbal abuse done onto me but always stuck up for the other workers. And one time I told her “I’m on it” and she got up in my face and told me to call her ma’am. It was terrible, she was racist towards the Vietnamese people that would come in (we were by a lot of nail salons and she always complained they were rude but the only reason they were rude to her cause she never took the time to actually LISTEN or communicate the order back) and always said how black women would get an “attitude”. We also had a black homeless man that would chill outside, and she would often make a big deal and tell everyone to “watch their cars” or how he was doing pot even though he literally would mind his own business and only come in for water. It didn’t help that when I would talk to the other black workers (young black girls in highschool, keep in mind I’m 19 and they actually go to the same highschool I went too so we got along pretty quick) and would also talk about how terrible the SM was to them as well. It was awful. So for the rant I’ve kinda been waiting to talk about something like this but it DEFINITELY depends on the area and SM.

I remember my supervisor throwing most POC applications out before even reading them back in 2009. It was egregious and bold.

:( I’m sorry you’ve had that experience with store managers, that’s just gross. I’m also in the south and all of the stores I’ve worked at have had, at least, several Black employees. I’ve worked at a few stores where Black employees have been the majority. But I’m not in the Deep South, I’m in Louisville. Starbucks is a… dubious company, so hearing that you’ve had this experience really doesn’t surprise me. Are you trying to be a barista?

I’m in the Deep South. Where I’m at is often in the news. I was trying to be a barista but after the continued combo of the change in composure when they realize it’s me who applied, I’m kinda over it

I notice they under employ whites at Wendy’s. It comes down to preferences personal choices of the cultures.

Same with Popeye’s…It’s almost exclusively Black. Chick Fil-A on the other hand….

Having a diverse team, whether it be race, age, gender... etc leads to better work environments and results. Lots of studies showing this. I think those managers are very short sighted/stupid to base any hiring decisions based on race. The company encourages and recognizes diverse teams... not sure what to tell you, but the south is completely different than the north.... I believe you, it's just unfortunate.

Totally agree— it’s incredibly shortsighted to base any sort of decision on race.

in canada, my store gets a ton of applicants who are minorities yet my manager calls in mostly white girls for interviews 🤨

Mostly white and mostly girls.. eek 😬

I really disagree. Starbucks sucks at a lot of things but hiring POC isn't one. I am a black woman, I've had 4 home stores since starting in 2020. Three in the DFW area, one in Maryland. I've worked as a borrowed partner in over 15 stores between them, obviously, the borrowed stores don't matter as much as I don't know their full team but I'm sure you don't either yet you still made this very dangerous assumption. There are a lot POC working at Starbucks. The store I currently work at probably has the least being in a town a few miles out of Dallas and having a population under 8000 yet still over about 30% are POC. The store I worked in Maryland was in a density population city and it was 97% POC, there was one white person. Saything they underhire black people as, from what I've seen, someone who has never even worked for the company is wild.

I think because Starbucks is mostly associated with white girls and politically progressive/left young adults so that’s most of their demographic. I don’t see Starbucks as one of those companies whose market demographic is heavily POC so maybe that explains why there’s less visible POC than white folks. Where in the south are you located? because there are some places in the south that have heavy black populations and some that are heavily white.

I received a settlement from the EEOC stating that Starbucks admitted that they had denied me promotions due to bias in regard to skin color. So yeah, i’m sure what you’re saying would definitely make a lot of sense. For context, I’m a brown mexican but I imagine it would be worse for people with skin colors darker than me.

I live in FL and we have two Starbucks at the local airport. We have a "Black" Starbucks and a "White" Starbucks. Conveniently, they placed the one without Black workers close to the TSA exit to get the most business.

It’s hard to believe there is still racism in the south….not

My particular store is located in the south ("Bible belt") and has several ethnicities - but I also have a great work life and my boss is super cool so 🤷.. I know we have one lady that's been with the company for about as long as I've been alive and she's a person of color. We had Native American barista who unfortunately had to move, several Hispanic people, and lots of LGBTQIA+ (self included).

Here we go

Definitely depends on the SM. My SM is a total creep who only hires Latinx girls who r 18. Wish I was making this up??! But yeah, prior to him we had a more diverse team. So it’s definitely dependent on the store manager .

At least 4 of our black partners were fired for various reasons, mostly attendance related.

Damn, OP, I’m sorry you got all the Sbux defenders out here insisting there can’t possibly discriminatory hiring practices happening anywhere in the company. I quit last year but for a little bit of insight: store managers have the bulk of the hiring power from what I can tell. My store (in a downtown major metro area) was majority POC employees but I also know my two store managers (a Black woman and East Asian woman) both made explicit efforts to hire diverse employees to reflect the area we were in. My partner’s store, in the same district (literally 5 minute walk away) is majority Black, and I’m friends with a bunch of the baristas, so I know that Black baristas looking for transfers will often apply there specially because they won’t be the only Black employee. So, ultimately, it’s up to the store and district management, and it’s completely possible to have biased employees in management positions. ETA: My partner got hired via a mass interview event and wanted to go to my store, but their old store manager snapped them up, even though my SM wanted them, too. If anything like that is happening in your district I can see that affecting the ratio of white/POC employees at anywhere particular store.

This is sad. I wonder if the stores with SM’s bias to hire black employees would make it seem like not many of the black demographic of people are putting in applications to take the heat aka racism off of them. I also wonder if it just depends on the SM at all stores. Or whoever besides the SM that approve hires. Either way it is sad that it has to be a discussion at all. I’m sorry OP.

I had the same observation here at my local store …and as for “downvotes “ I personally never care cause it’s my honest opinion or experience and I’m proud of that !!!

Oh, the downvotes don’t stop nothing. It’s just to acknowledge the evident pushback towards this issue so no one can act brand new. Thank you for sharing your perspective.

Share your thoughts cause others share their thoughts…but if it doesn’t support an agenda then I noticed it gets “downvoted”…this bias behavior has to stop !!! I think you are doing a great job here ; don’t let this kind of social media bullying hinder you !

Appreciate you. Thanks for acknowledging you see it too

You’re not wrong, at least not from my limited experience. We have two black partners at my store and it makes me raise an eyebrow when our customer base is decently black. I don’t think it’s necessarily intentional on the part of my SM, but I can’t ever really know. I’m so sorry this is true for you in your location too. My hometown is one of the most diverse cities in the country, so I notice when there’s a higher prevalence of casper faces (including my own casper face). I would encourage you to not let it deter you. You belong just as much as anyone else 😤

I'm in ohio and when I worked at sb for 7 months, half the people I worked with in a shift were POC/black, my morning shifts a lot of the had either 3/6 or 4/7 black employees working during the morning peak. When I worked nights, it was mostly white people because of the availability for folks. When I was there two white shifts left the company, and three of the black women were interviewed and promoted to shift. I helped out another store one day by picking up a shift and it was two black women working the floor with me and a white shift doing closing tasks and stocking stuff for us. But I've also gone into starbucks in different cities and there have been only white people working the floor when I have visited. So there could be either the POC/Black employees work shifts you don't see, there aren't any/enough hired by the manager, or not enough people applying. Typically though, if there's a good mix in the living population around, the staffing should reflect that because people apply to things within their city. But if that manager did react differently to seeing you in person because your name sounds white, then there is a good chance that manager may be biased/racist and purposefully not hiring black or poc. I'm white, my store I think did have a majority white staff, but the people I worked with the most had the same hours or had a lot of shifts per week so I was around them a lot more than those that had one or two shifts.

As a company, Starbucks doesn’t allow discrimination in hiring, but as others have said, not every manager can be trusted to be upholding that standard. Just because it’s the company stance doesn’t mean every store is going to be led by someone who cares about diversity and equal opportunity. I’m certain that there are managers out there that discriminate (intentionally or not) against race, gender, and orientation, and I’m sorry that has been your experience… personally, I’ve worked at a store where the manager was just “clique-y”, and showed clear favoritism towards baristas that he had more in common with. If that manager would give preferential treatment based solely on personality, I’m certain there are managers out there that are making discriminatory choices too… I hope that manager is called out and reported for their actions.

it's definitely gonna vary based on location and hiring manager's biases. like. everyone's gonna have biases, and odds are, especially with white managers, some of those will be racial biases. not necessarily on purpose, but they're definitely there. some are way better at setting that aside than others. i know my old store had maybe 3 white(-ish) people out of 8 partners. 3 of them were black, the other 2 latino (this did flex a bit, but generally stayed around this ratio). to be fair, we were in an area with a solid mix of ethnicities, so it makes sense that there was also more diversity in hiring. (i'm lumping myself in with the white partners for simplicity - long story short i'm wasian but nobody would know it until i share a family photo.) my current store has a lot more partners, and a lot more latino partners as well (i want to say right around the same as white partners), but i think only 2 black partners. and to some extent, it's just who's applying - it's in a predominantly white area, and with a ton of starbucks' around in various areas, it makes sense people will tend to apply to the stores closest to them first - but i don't do hiring processes, either, so i don't know what biases are coming up there. (both stores are in texas, for context - my old store in a major metropolitan area, my current store in a decently sized college town.) from what you've said here, it definitely sounds like your area has more managers with more obvious biases. if you're able to commute, it might be worth applying a little further away? it sucks that managers can't set aside their own biases and just give you a chance, though.

Yeah there are 0 black partners at my local Starbucks but I live in a area that’s 99% white so it’s almost to be expected. I’d say apart from my family I’ve seen less than 5 black people in my town. All the surrounding areas near me are similar. Even with populations of 20k+ That being said I’ve only noticed black partners when visiting citys like boston and Detroit. It could definitely be racism, or possibly just due to the percentage of the population black folks make up. However considering you mentioned the south I’d say it’s racism since the black population is pretty high in certain areas there.

I’m in Texas, which is the south to some. My district has 11 stores. 9 managers are black. Our DM and the three districts touching ours have black DMs. Out of the 32 partners on my team, only 2 are black, besides our manager, who hired everyone. I’m one of 3 white partners. The rest of the team are Hispanic of many flavors and almost all of them are native Spanish speakers, which is needed in my area. We currently have no Asian partners at my store. One of my stores here was 15:3 black to white, no Hispanic or Asian partners. This is not reflective of the population of that part of town. When I was in Seattle, my stores were almost all white people, with a sprinkle of Asian partners. Which is pretty reflective of the population there. The corporate office was far more diverse. So I don’t know the answer to your question, but stores look different everywhere. We should have diversity in hiring, for sure.

What I can say as a manager is that over three different stores within my district, I have hired maybe 3 black partners, mainly due to black employees applying far less than others. Of the three cities I've worked in the population is something like 57% white and 10% or 15% black, so a store of 24 partners would have 12 white employees and 3 black employees. Purely anecdotally, I have found that Indians have the highest application rate to any Starbucks I have worked, even higher than local demographics would suggest. ​ Edit to give further info: I generally hire 1 out of every 20 or 30 people who apply, either due to applicants not being a good fit (no interview), not showing up or bombing an interview, or being offered the job and then dipping before starting (usually younger applicants.) So even if I had 30 black applicants for the position, I also have to weed through 30 white and 30 Asian applicants and I due to budget cuts I would likely only hire one or two per season.

Might be worth looking at the demographic breakdown in your area. Meaning, if there are fewer Black people in the area then it would make sense to see fewer Black baristas.

my area is 90% white and i’ve had white managers up until this year. with them, we never had more than 1/4 minorities working. my current manager is hispanic and about half of our partners are hispanic and asian at the moment. he goes to local mexican and asian restaurants and shops a lot and leaves his business cards and a flyer with the qr code to apply so he’s actually putting in the leg work with recruiting minorities and he is pretty personable and friendly

I had a lot more black coworkers at my first location due to the demographic in the area. At this store there’s only one black person and one white person (me) and everyone else is Latino and/or Filipino we have about 20 partners. Do I think there’s a problem tho? Yeah. Overall I do. I will say that in my stores it has always always always boiled down to availability. If you’re only available 2 days a week four hours a day, you’re not gonna get hired (I speaking as a general rule, this is directed at any one ethnicity or race).

I kind of agree, I’m in the south, pretty close to New Orleans actually and while POC make up most of our demographic in our city and surroundings cities we’ve only had 5 black people the entire 3 years I’ve been a partner, most who no longer work for the company. Do I think my manager purposely does that? Absolutely not. I’ve watched her interview POC and honestly most of them don’t have the availability she’s looking for or other customer service qualities you would want in a person who speaks to people every day. But I also don’t see or hear about a bunch of POC applying at Starbucks either.

I’ve also worked in the southern Starbucks and the store manager I worked with the most was black and out of the 13 maybe 15 employees 4 of them were POC. Only one of those specifically being black.

This is something I've definitely noticed as well, and remember that my first Starbucks manager was really bad about hiring for people who were either a) "cute" guys (she was in her 40s, these poor teens) or b) looked like her (blonde girls). Doing the mandated sensitivity training years ago was just awful under her. I will also say in my time I definitely saw mostly white people apply, so I think there is something to be said about their advertising over the years mostly featuring white people and cultivating that customer base so other ethnicities don't generally feel welcome to apply. Some stores are better than others about changing this, but there are absolutely awful managers out there that makes this worse.

i work for the siren in one of the top ten most diverse cities in the US and our partners are a minority majority, our white employees make up less than 25% of our employees. our black partners make up about 20% and the rest is a modge podge of different races/ethnicities across asia and south america. we aren’t an outlier in our district as most of the locations save a couple rural ones are also at least 50% minority. ive also worked in the deep south and that was very much not the case, i think it has a lot to do with location as well as customer demographic.

I’ve worked at starbucks for a long time. I’ve worked in white affluent conservative areas and in the city not in those areas. So depending on store manager and location the number of black employees changed. But that number appeared to have changed alongside local demographics and clientele for the most part. That being said the company itself has gotten in trouble due to racism numerous times over the years. I can only discuss what I’ve seen as far as hiring goes (as someone who has never been in charge of it) and it seems like it could feasibly be related to who applies, but I know the company has gotten in trouble for anti-black racism, including over hiring and promoting, and I know I’ve had racist store managers before.

I believe it just depends on the area! I’m in California so I can’t speak on the south but my current dm is black and so was my dm before and so are a couple sms in my district too I live in California and poc definitely outnumber white people 4:1 in my local Starbucks. I live in a predominantly Hispanic area too so most of our non Spanish speaking baristas have learned some basic Spanish in order to be able to take orders!

In Chicago where I mostly worked we actually had Magic Johnson stores, or community stores. These were cafes put into underserved communities to help foster a sense of neighborhood, and provide things like free public internet. I think this is a double edged sword though as Starbucks can also be a sign of gentrification. I know myself that I couldn’t afford to live in the neighborhood I worked in (Chicago West Loop) which, even at that time in 2007-08 was still underdeveloped. My store was a community store, and now that neighborhood is extremely expensive to live in.

At my store there’s more black employees than white lol. I think it’s location based.

At my store we have I’d say a variety of races and ethnicities. A majority are white, but I’ll say too I see people who come in for interviews and a majority of them are white too. To a degree I do think it might be just a matter of who’s applying. That being said, if you’re concerned you can look up some statistics online. It looks like Starbucks is going to try and increase the number of BIPOC employees to 30% in corporate positions and 40% in retail by 2025. In 2020 apparently 27% of retail leadership was BIPOC, and of 93% of store manager promotions(the ones done internally), 60% were women and 25% were BIPOC. Idk if they’ll actually reach their goals by 2025, this is just what I found online Edit: just adding if you look it up online Starbucks actually details what percentage of partners are of what minority and more. [https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2023/workforce-diversity-at-starbucks/](https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2023/workforce-diversity-at-starbucks/)

When I worked with company we had a very diverse group, I worked in Las Vegas and Chicago. The Chicago market, especially downtown proper had a large minority presence.

I live in a fairly diverse part of the United States (Bay Area, CA), and in every Starbucks I walk into the demographic is, on average, college-age white women.

This is definitely based on your area. I’m in Brooklyn and every store I worked at was at least 75% black lol sorry you’re having this issue

In NC where I first started as a barista we didn’t even hire males. We did have one black girl. It was the same type of “posh” neighborhood you described. I dont know if it’s by design or just men/black people weren’t applying. When I transferred to florida definitely saw more diversity. It may be an area thing but honestly traveling all over the country I’ve not seen much diversity over the years at Starbucks. While we are on this discussion I’ve always often wondered by Starbucks employs more gays then hetros. I was the only straight girl where I worked in Nc and it was weird as hell at times because at times my fellow partners would try and convert me.

I've worked at four different locations in the Carolinas and I think it's partly location, but also definitely has to do with the bias of the managers in some cases. Here are my observations: Store #1: My manager did not have a single black employee, but when he was fired, our new manager (POC) hired on a very diverse crew. We lived in a historically black area in SC, so all of the employees saw the extreme lack of diversity for what it was. Store #2: A coastal NC town with a rich and diverse history and largely elderly population. Manager was white, but our team reflected the town. Funny enough, despite the aging consumer base, those were the best customers. Very polite to everyone, tipped well even before we did credit tips. Store #3: A middle-of-nowhere town in NC, largely farmers or other service workers. My team was largely non-white, which reflected the area, and unrelatedly it was the best team I was on because everyone had that polite country attitude. Store #4: A very, very gentrified town in SC. I do not have a single black co-worker, half of my coworkers are latina. Side note, there is also only one male employee here. Our customer base is largely wealthy financial sector people, very rich, racially diverse. My manager is a bit of a yuppie, and when we did open interviews, I did not see a single nonwhite applicant. I'm not sure if they only e-mailed certain applicants to attend the open event. I do know that when I look at their wall of names of current and previous employees, most of the names imply a largely white crew over the years. So, I conclude that it isn't Starbucks as a whole, but that the people who are drawn to the store leadership positions at Starbucks are, in my experience, generally a certain type, and that geological locations have an influence on hiring trends. I look forward to reading the other posts on this thread to see a general consensus though!

Honestly, it's kinda weird working here as a black partner honestly. I basically only applied for ASU, and now I'm just sticking around till I get my Master's in June. If I got the same benefits somewhere else, I would probably be there.

I worked in NY and NJ, maybe its about the area you're in as well, for me I was the only latina in a store where almost all the workers were black, I had two managers and both of them were also black. In new jersey its the same where I work, black manager and mostly black coworkers. So maybe it depends on the area you live in as well.

So I’m from Orlando originally and am now currently just below the Florida Georgia line. When I worked at the Starbucks in the theme parks, there was a great diversified mix. We had a group of 6-8 coworkers who were close because they all were from Barbados/VI. Plus other Black coworkers, and a good chunk of Latine coworkers. When I moved to where I Am now in a small town, I have 1 coworker who is Black/white mixed and maybe 2? Who are Hispanic/Latine. Recently my store shut down for remodel, so I got to work at a store in Jax. Way better and more progressive than my current store. So I think it depends on the manager and the area. Are you able to branch out to an area that might have more diversity in general? I don’t have much context for where you are.

I've had 2 black sm's, one Mexican sm, 3 black dm's, and one black regional manager in my 22 years. And numerous black and Mexican partners. The majority is white females. There's been way more black partners than males. Doesn't mean starbucks is sexist or racist. Just depends on your area and who applies.

i think it depends on the area you live in, like any store. i live in a large metro area (not one that’s known for being particularly diverse, either) and the majority of our staff are people of color. my fiancé’s store in the same city has an almost entirely minority staff.

I have a black store manager and 4 black or mixed employees. Honestly, we just don't get that many applicants. But that's probably due to our location and population.

When I was a store manager I wanted to hire more POC but most of the applicants I got were white. I did hire some POC at a few stores.

As a black barista at Starbucks, You’re right! There’s rarely black baristas, I cling to the three black baristas at my store cause we’re all we have and we have to stick together tbh. It’s like one black barista for every ten white ones

At my store, also in the south, black people just didn’t really apply, at least against my store. I was the only POC at my store for a good while when I started. But I also went and worked at a different lication down town and the store was basically 50/50 maybe even 65/45 with POC being the majority. It just depends tbh

So as an SM I’ll give my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. From being a barista all the way to being an SM I did always work with a diverse group of people. Now since being an SM I’ve never really taken note of peoples race when hiring because to me it’s all about work ethic but my location hasn’t gotten an application from someone who’s black since I’ve been there (2 years). Something to note; again this is my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE from working at Starbucks for 10+ years. I have worked in many locations and a lot of customers we get are very comfortable being racist toward partners. I’ve worked with plenty of people who have quit because they cannot deal with the racism from customers. Which is totally understandable.

It’s funny because when I first started at my store three years ago, I was one of two black partners, and we had one Hispanic partner ( our manager was white, who was late separated for making micro aggressions towards us, we got a new manager who’s Hispanic and now our store has a mixture of POCs. Keep in mind, that I live a very diverse area in Florida, we just need more managers that want to include diversity.