A notice is posted at a Starbucks store in Seoul. [Yonhap]
A notice is posted at a Starbucks store in Seoul. [Yonhap]

Starbucks Korea will close all of its stores nationwide at 3 p.m. Monday — the first time the company has shut down operations early since opening its first Korean location, the Ewha branch, in 1999.

Stores across the country began posting notices June 16 apologizing for the reduced hours and inconvenience to customers. The early closure will allow the company to conduct a companywide training session aimed at strengthening employees' historical awareness and social sensitivity following a marketing controversy that erupted last month.

Starbucks partners, as the company calls its employees, will watch a prepared training video at their respective stores using monitors supplied by headquarters. Staff members on leave will be required to complete the training later by watching the video online.

The video is a recording of lectures delivered June 17 at Starbucks Korea's headquarters to head-office employees and executives from E-mart affiliates. The lecturers were Oh Je-yeon, a history professor at Sungkyunkwan University, and Koo Jeong-woo, a sociology professor at the same university. The session covered topics including "the correct historical awareness a company should have" and "social sensitivity and ethical standards."

Jeong Yong-jin, chairman of Shinsegae Group — the parent company of Starbucks Korea — is also set to watch the same training video with affiliate chief executives ahead of a presidents' meeting scheduled for June 24.

"The event will be held as a 'brand values workshop' that goes beyond education on historical awareness and social sensitivity to include communication about the values and mission Starbucks stands for," a Starbucks Korea official said. "Through this roughly three-hour event, we will work to prevent a recurrence of the Tank Day incident."

Starbucks Korea also plans to overhaul its marketing decision-making process. The company will make a social sensitivity checklist mandatory at every stage of future marketing planning and will establish a multi-layered verification system to comprehensively rebuild its risk prevention framework.


korean@heraldcorp.com