Starbucks Stores to Close Early at 3 PM on June 22; Chairman Chung Yong-jin to Also Undergo History Education

Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin, company executives, and all employees of Starbucks Korea will undergo training to raise historical awareness and foster social sensitivity.

On June 22, the day of the training, Starbucks Korea plans to close all stores nationwide early in the afternoon to conduct the session for employees working that day, while those on leave will watch the video training individually at a later date.

Shinsegae Group announced today (June 15) that it will conduct historical awareness and social sensitivity training for executives of E-Mart division affiliates and headquarters staff of Starbucks Korea.

Chairman Chung will receive the historical awareness and social sensitivity training alongside the CEOs of the group's affiliates ahead of a presidents' meeting scheduled for June 24.

This is a follow-up measure after Chairman Chung apologized on May 26 regarding Starbucks' controversial "Tank Day" promotional event, saying, "I sincerely bow my head in apology and ask for your forgiveness."

The group plans to reaffirm its commitment to fulfilling its responsibilities to ensure that incidents similar to the Starbucks marketing controversy do not happen again.

Executives of E-Mart division affiliates and Starbucks Korea headquarters staff will undergo training on June 17 at Shinsegae Namsan, the group's in-house training center.

All headquarters staff of Starbucks, as well as executives from E-Mart and other E-Mart division affiliates, are scheduled to attend the training.

Partners (store employees) working at Starbucks Korea stores will receive their training on June 22.

On that day, all stores nationwide will close early at 3 PM, and employees at each branch will watch video recordings of the June 17 training session to complete the lectures on historical awareness and social sensitivity.

They will also take time to reflect on Starbucks' brand value of devoting their utmost to one customer, one beverage, and their neighbors.

Specifically, the program will be conducted under the name "Brand Value Workshop," with store managers at each location leading the sessions.

Prior to this, a session to share a "leadership message" has also been arranged.

After the workshop, store closing duties and other tasks will follow, and all employees scheduled to work that day must attend the training unless they have personal reasons.

To ensure smooth operations, Starbucks has reportedly temporarily adjusted the maximum daily overtime limit for partners working on that day from three hours to four hours.

The company also plans to adjust commuting hours in line with the changes in business hours and the workshop schedule.

Partners scheduled to be off on the day of the training must watch the educational videos individually from June 23 to July 12.

In addition, all stores will post notices in advance from June 16 to 22, informing customers of the business hour changes on the day of the training to minimize inconvenience.

This is the first time since Starbucks Korea opened its first store in 1999 that all of its locations nationwide will close early at the same time.

Regarding the early closure on June 22, Shinsegae Group stated, "This demonstrates our commitment to taking this marketing incident seriously and ensuring it does not happen again."

Employees of other affiliates under the E-Mart division will take the same training online over a two-week period starting July 1.

The historical awareness training will be led by Oh Je-yeon, a history professor at Sungkyunkwan University.

Professor Oh, a scholar specializing in modern Korean history, will lecture on major events in modern and contemporary history since the 1950s and how to correctly perceive them.

The social sensitivity training will be conducted by Koo Jeong-woo, a sociology professor at Sungkyunkwan University.

The lecture will cover how corporations should consider and be mindful of social issues such as history, labor, gender, and human rights when conducting business activities, including marketing.

To prevent similar marketing mishaps from recurring, Starbucks Korea is pushing to "systematize risk prevention" by reorganizing its online and offline marketing processes.

The company will establish a "social sensitivity" checklist in consultation with external professional institutions to conduct mandatory risk assessments starting from the planning stage.

While the previous planning stage mainly evaluated legality and brand alignment, the company will now examine factors such as "history, anniversaries, politics, disasters, military, gender, violence, and hate speech" in advance.

Using the checklist, the company will assess whether any elements conflict with the significance of public holidays or memorial days, and whether any expressions could be interpreted as attacking or expressing hatred toward specific groups.

The review process will also be strengthened.

Starbucks Korea will secure sufficient review time from marketing planning to launch to prevent poor screening due to tight schedules. It will also standardize reporting formats so that the timing of campaigns and key phrases can be clearly verified at a glance during the approval and consensus processes.

Starbucks Korea will establish a new system requiring final reviews by heads of relevant departments, including quality control and legal, as well as the department in charge, immediately before executing any marketing content.

This is to ensure that all content exposed to customers undergoes multiple verification procedures before being released.

Records will also be maintained regarding who gave final approval for which content and what opinions were expressed.

Starbucks Korea will also strengthen its social contribution activities.

The company plans to establish a social contribution fund to improve infrastructure at modern and contemporary historical sites and to promote commemorative projects linked to national and major historical anniversaries.

It will also expand support for those who dedicate themselves to the public interest through its existing "Hero Program."

History education for future generations will also be promoted.

The company is planning various activities, including supporting historical field trips for elementary, middle, and high school students, sponsoring university history research clubs, and supporting projects to promote accurate historical awareness.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.