Starbucks Korea to Close All Stores Early Next Week After CEO Firing Over Tumbler Campaign
The chain will shut outlets at 3pm local time next Monday after a marketing campaign using 'Tank Day' and '5/18' references drew backlash over the 1980 Gwangju Uprising.
koreaherald.comStarbucks Korea will close every outlet nationwide at 3pm local time on Monday next week so employees can attend training on historical awareness and social sensitivity. The simultaneous early closures mark the first time the chain has shut stores across South Korea at once since it opened there in 1999.
Shinsegae Group, the local operator, said Chairman Chung Yong-jin and top executives will receive separate training on Wednesday.
The company stated the sessions are meant to treat the recent incident as a lesson and prevent similar cases from recurring across the group. The training follows a marketing campaign launched last month that used the wording “Tank Day” and “5/18” to promote coffee tumblers.
The references evoked the May 18, 1980 military crackdown on the Gwangju Uprising, in which government figures recorded more than 200 deaths and activists and historians estimate more than 2,000.
Starbucks Korea CEO Son Jung-hyun was fired over the campaign. ” South Korea is home to more than 2,000 Starbucks outlets and ranks as the chain’s second-largest overseas market after China.
