Tall Order for Seattle Companies: Racial Discrimination at Starbucks, Amazon Gets Stink-Eye From Trump

Knute Berger is a columnist for Seattle magazine. Read more from him here.

A corporate image is never done. Ask Starbucks, the widely accepted Third Place in American life. The incident in Philadelphia where two black men were arrested and handcuffed in a matter of minutes for waiting to meet someone was shocking to many. These men had the audacity not buy drinks immediately and ask to use the rest room. This is pretty normal behavior. Who hasn’t waited in a Starbucks for someone to arrive who was going to foot the bill and used the bathroom in the meantime? I have, and have not yet been perp walked or arrested.

Because the episode was recorded on a cell phone, we all know how outrageous it was. It has altered the orbit of the company. Is Starbucks only a Third Place for white people? Will we ever look at Starbucks the same? Will the mass closure of Starbucks cafes for employee racial bias training really work? Their best hope is the people see this as a problem with American society itself, not just with their chain of cafes. They do not want to become the Denny’s of latteland.

Amazon too is experiencing turbulence, courtesy of the President of the United States, who has indicated the company is too big, too powerful, and cheating the U.S. Postal Service. Donald Trump believes the company is campaigning against him because Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and boss, owns the Washington Post, which Trump sees as a journalistic nemesis. Many presidents have seen the paper that way, at least presidents not named Kennedy.

Most might think that Amazon at this point is too big to fail, but success or failure can often ride on perception. I noticed that Bezos, who is not exactly a colorful character in the Big CEO sense, recently Tweeted out an image of himself making pancakes with Russell Wilson and Ciara. He said they ate their weight in pancakes. This seems like a new direction, a kind of recasting of himself as a regular guy. Look at me, social media followers, it’s pancakes, Seahawks, and over-eating.

I made pancakes on this rainy Seattle morning for @ciara and @DangeRussWilson. These guys are as fun as they are talented. Inspiring too. And Russ and I ate our weight in pancakes! #funfriends pic.twitter.com/MWST7oXbVs

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 14, 2018

Could this be a maneuver to gain more of a human profile for a guy more associated with robots, drones, Spheres, and a computerized companion named Alexa?

Last week, I was in a Starbucks for an appointment I had set before the Philadelphia incident to meet a reporter from Atlanta to talk about Amazon. The topic was HQ2, and no announcement has been made yet about where Amazon’s second home is going to be. Many speculate is will be in the Greater DC area because three of the finalists are there (DC, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Northern Virginia). And given the current political climate, maybe being close to policymakers is not a bad idea. Bezos also has a home there.

But the whole Hunger Games scenario Amazon set up, pitting cities like Atlanta, Boston, and Austin against each other to bid for HQ2 strikes me as something that could leave a bad taste in the mouths of the losing communities. Many of these competitors are promising millions and even billions of dollars in subsidies, tax breaks and other perks for Amazon to site there. Of the 20 finalists, 19 are going to have gone a long way to selling their souls before finding that they were spurned. That could set up a scenario for recriminations. Trump will likely be furious that Mar-a-Lago is not the surprise choice.

Burnishing his personal brand is likely a good move for Bezos, just as it is incumbent on Starbucks to clean up its big spill of racism. While Amazon searches for HQ2 and tries to fend off a predatory president, Starbucks must now invent a better Third Place for all of us. That’s a tall—or rather Grande-sized–order.