Watched a local coffee shop try to apologize for a racist incident and it was a masterclass in what not to do

Last week a shop near me in Austin posted a photo of a Black customer they wrongly accused of loitering, and their apology was just... bad. They deleted the post without saying anything for like three days, then put up a vague "we're sorry if anyone was offended" type message. I mean, that's not an apology, you know? The owner didn't even name what they did wrong or say they'd train staff differently. Has anyone else seen a brand try to apologize by pretending nothing happened and seen how much worse it got?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_fox508d ago

In my experience, sometimes going silent for a few days can be the right move if they're actually figuring out what happened and putting together a real plan. Deleting the photo right away without a word looks bad, but three days to investigate and craft a meaningful apology isn't automatically wrong. The real problem is what they said afterward. If the apology was vague and didn't name the specific failure or promise concrete changes, then yeah, that's where they lost people. Your mileage may vary, but I've seen worse reactions come from rushing out a half-baked apology right away that just pours gasoline on everything.

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willow1147d ago

Did someone post a study on this, @jana_fox50?