Police officers asked by a Starbucks outlet in Chongqing to leave to 'preserve brand image'
A staff member at a Starbucks outlet in Chongqing's Ciqikou ancient town is said to ask four on-duty police officers who were having lunch on the coffee shop's porch to leave on Sunday afternoon.
The employee told the police officers to have their lunch elsewhere because it was "not good for the company's brand image," according to one of the police officer's WeChat Moment posts.
The police officer describes in a WeChat Moments post what happened that day.
The officer also said in the post that he had no idea what kind of police are good enough for Starbucks' brand image.
Netizens voiced their support for the officer after someone took a screenshot of the officer's WeChat post and uploaded it on Weibo, Chinese version of Twitter.
Some people left angry comments about how the officers were treated.
"Have the officers affected your business in any way? Apologize!" One comment said.
Starbucks issued an apology on Monday on their official Weibo account, explaining what had happened: The outlet arranged for the officers to have their lunch on the porch, but later a few customers asked if they could also sit on the porch. According to the statement, the employee may have used inappropriate words while arranging the seats.
Starbucks' official apology on its official Weibo account
Still, many are not happy with their statement and believe that no customers would ask for police officers to leave, especially when they are already having their lunch at the time.
