Starbucks Korea to shut outlets for history lessons

Starbucks stores across South Korea will shutter for half a day next week for staff to attend a history lesson following a promotional campaign gone awry, the coffee giant said Monday.

Starbucks Korea, with more than 2,000 stores nationwide, found itself embroiled in public uproar last month when it ran a "Tank Day" promotion evoking a deadly military crackdown on a 1980 pro-democracy uprising.

The day of the reusable cup promotion - May 18 - coincided with the 46th anniversary of the Gwangju uprising in which 165 civilians were killed, according to the official toll, though many believe the real figure to be much higher.

South Korea is the company's third largest market after the United States and China.

Shinsegae Group, which operates Starbucks under a licensing agreement, fired its Korea chief executive the very day news of the scandal broke, and apologised.

On Monday, it said all employees at Starbucks Korea stores will "receive education in historical awareness and social sensitivity through watching videos".

Stores countrywide will shutter at 3:00 pm (0600 GMT) next Monday for three hours of training and not reopen - the first such simultaneous closure since Starbucks opened in South Korea in 1999.

The only exclusion will be for a handful of outlets at airports, a Shinsegae representative told AFP.

The group said it had identified a series of negligent acts leading up to the promotion, including officials signing off without checking the design file.

There had also been no legal review.

The controversy, which sparked protests in Seoul and Gwangju, sparked a "sharp decline in sales" in the early days of the scandal, according to the operator.

President Lee Jae Myung had expressed outrage "by this inhumane and disgraceful conduct" on X amid the backlash.

-AFP