【Michael Maien】

Starbucks is Michael Maienout of business for the afternoon.

In response to several Starbucks employees being accused of racial profiling customers, the coffee chain decided to close its 8,000 company-owned stores for several hours on May 29 to administer racial-bias training.

SEE ALSO: How can Starbucks ensure its racial-bias training actually helps a divided America?

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The training announcement came after a video of two black men being arrested in a Philidelphia Starbucks surfaced online in April.

Reports indicated that a barista had called the police on the men because they had yet to order anything, and several days later a video of a black man being denied access to a southern California Starbucks bathroom because he too, hadn't purchased anything.

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About a week before the training Starbucks, one day after a customer claimed a racial slur was written on his coffee cup, Starbucks announced a new store-wide policy that people would no longer be required to make a purchase before sitting in a cafe or using the restrooms.

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On May 29, prior to the stores shutting their doors, Starbucks executive chairman Howard Schultz shared an open letter to customers detailing the recent incidents and vowing the company "still aspires to be a place where everyone feels welcome."

Throughout the late morning and early afternoon, Starbucks stores began closing their doors and displaying signs, like the one below, to alert customers of the change in hours.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

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According to the website, more than 175,000 Starbucks employees will be "sharing life experiences, hearing from others, listening to experts, reflecting on the realities of bias in our society and talking about how all of us create public spaces where everyone feels like they belong."

And while Starbucks promises to release the curriculum to the public after the training takes place, the company shared a five-minute preview video to give customers a better sense of the topics that will be discussed behind closed doors.

Experts such as Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; and artist and activist, Common; among others, reportedly helped develop the curriculum.

The training is a small but important step towards tackling much larger problems of discrimination in the world, and though it's only for a few hours customers couldn't help but react. Some noticed the world does keep spinning without Starbucks, while others were going through a serious withdrawal.

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Following the afternoon of training Starbucks locations will resume regular operations on Wednesday, May 30.

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