[Edaily Reporter KIM JUNG YOU ] Starbucks Korea will conduct historical awareness training for all store employees (partners) on the 22nd. This is a follow-up measure to the “Tank Day marketing incident” that sparked controversy last month for disparaging the May 18 Democratization Movement. All eyes are on whether Starbucks will be able to restore its brand image.

According to Shinsegae Co.,Ltd on the 22nd, Starbucks Korea will conduct historical awareness training for store partners starting at 3:00 p.m. that day. This will involve watching a video of the historical and social sensitivity training previously conducted for Starbucks Korea executives and employees on the 17th. Accordingly, Starbucks stores are notifying customers of the shortened operating hours on the 22nd.

Starting at 3:00 p.m. today, Starbucks Korea store partners will attend lectures by Professor Oh Je-yeon of the Department of History at Sungkyunkwan University and Professor Koo Jeong-woo of the Department of Sociology at Sungkyunkwan University on topics including △the proper historical awareness a company should possess △social sensitivity and ethical standards. In addition, they will take time to reflect on Starbucks’ brand values: “One customer, one cup, and our neighbors—we give our all.”

This is the first time Starbucks Korea has shortened its operating hours since entering the Korean market in 1999. As the social backlash grew due to an unexpected marketing controversy, Shinsegae Co.,Ltd. (E-MART Co., Ltd.)—Starbucks Korea’s parent company—initiated a company-wide history education program. The police are currently investigating whether the “Tank Day” marketing campaign was intentional.

After the issue first arose last month, Shinsegae Co.,Ltd moved swiftly to address the situation. It immediately dismissed the CEO of Starbucks Korea and relevant executives, and issued a group-wide public apology. Subsequently, Shinsegae Co.,Ltd Chairman Chung Yong-jin personally stepped forward to apologize to the public. At the time, Chairman Chung ordered company-wide history education and promised to participate in the training himself.

In fact, Chairman Jeong is scheduled to undergo training on historical awareness and social sensitivity alongside the CEOs of affiliate companies prior to the executive committee meeting on the 24th. Additionally, employees at other affiliate companies will begin taking special online training courses starting on the 1st of next month.

Earlier, on the 17th, Professor Koo, the lecturer, defined social sensitivity in his special lecture as the ability to align corporate communications with social expectations and standards of human dignity, as well as the ability to recognize social conflicts, memories, and taboos. He also urged participants to make a concerted effort, noting that social sensitivity is essentially the “ability to read society.”

He also praised Starbucks Korea’s decision to create a checklist to assess social sensitivity, while emphasizing that, since society is constantly changing, the checklist should not be viewed as static but should be continuously reviewed.

Meanwhile, according to Mobile Index, the estimated credit and debit card payment amount at Starbucks for the second week of June (June 8–14) totaled 22.764 billion won. This represents a decrease of approximately 1.44 billion won compared to the previous week (24.26 billion won), which translates to a decline of about 6.0%.