Last June, Kelly Osbourne, 33, claimed she was forced to pee her pants after a New York City Starbucks refused to let her use their restroom during the NYC Pride Parade. Now, one year later, Starbucks has changed their ways after a public scandal and will open their bathrooms to all, customer or not. “I think that what Starbucks has done is take notice like no other company has ever done,” Kelly told HollywoodLife exclusively at the Life Ball in Vienna, Austria. “Yes, it was a great big fuck up. That’s what it was, but they have shown they’re willing to change and do something about it, and that’s the first step.” She added, “It’s just amazing.”
Starbucks took drastic steps to change their bathroom policy after two men were arrested in one of their Philadelphia coffee shops, for sitting at a table and asking to use the restroom without making a purchase. “Any person who enters our spaces, including patios, cafes and restrooms, regardless of whether they make a purchase, is considered a customer,” Starbucks announced after there was an uproar across America after news broke of how the two young black men were treated. Additionally, Starbucks closed 8,000 stores May 29 for racial bias training. The company’s chairman Howard Schultz added, “We don’t want to become a public bathroom, but we’re going to make the right decision 100% of the time and give people the key, because we don’t want anyone at Starbucks to feel as if we are not giving access to you to the bathroom because you are less than. We want you to be more than.”
Well, last June, Kelly Osbourne surely felt less than while in a Starbucks. After she offered to make a purchase and begged management to allow her to use the restroom, she was forced to pee in her shoe. “It’s common decency to allow someone to use a bathroom,” her rep told Page Six, “It’s compassion.” A representative from Starbucks called the incident a “misunderstanding” and said “there simply is no restroom in this store, and inquiring customers are typically directed to a store a few blocks away.”