I suspect that the real purpose of this “training” was not so much to impart information to employees as to take some of the heat off the corporation.
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You are correct in that they are trying to counter bad publicity. It may work to
a degree and in the long run I'd guess they will recover. From what I've read Starbucks
has some 25,000 stores around the world with about 1/2 in the USA. They are expanding
outside the USA much faster than here at home. Example, in China they have grown from
800 to 3200 in the past five years. Plans are to open 5,000 more by 2021 in China.