Starbucks have apologised after one of their baristas wrote a racial slur on the coffee cup of a Latino customer.
The worker at the Starbucks café in the town of La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles County, allegedly printed the word 'beaner' on the side of a cup of coffee ordered by a man called Pedro.
'Beaner' is a derogatory term for Mexicans in the United States.
Priscilla Hernandez is a co-worker at the restaurant that Pedro works at. She told CNN that they go into the Starbucks there for a coffee all of the time. She said: "I asked him if he realized what they had put on his cup. He said no. So, I was really upset about it, because that isn't OK.
"Out of all the names they could've put on his coffees for 'misunderstanding' him they decide to put 'beaner'."
Hernandez had called the store when she found that they had printed the slur on her friend's coffee. She was understandably disgusted but was told that employee couldn't understand what Pedro had said.
She rightly pointed out that, even if there was a misunderstanding, they understood him enough to get his order right. Also, it seems as if 'beaner' couldn't possibly sound like Pedro. It has to have been deliberate.
After she put in a complaint, Starbucks responded with a tweet that said: "Thank you for letting us know, Priscilla. This is not the welcoming experience we aim to provide, and we have reached out to this customer to apologize and make this right."
She and Pedro met with the store's manager who offered an apology as well as launching an investigation into the incident.
A spokesperson told CNN that representatives had 'met with the customer this morning at one of our local stores in the area and he accepted our apology'.
The statement continued: "This kind of mistake is unacceptable, and we will take additional steps to assess what happened here and how our partners can be better."
8,000 Starbucks stores are due to be closed on 29 May this year for 'racial bias' training to be delivered to the giant company's 175,000 employees.
This latest incident comes after two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia branch of the café as they waited for someone to meet them there.
They were arrested for trespassing, but not charges were brought. As part of their settlement with the two men, Starbucks agreed to fund the training initiative.
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