Starbucks customers won't be able to bring their own mugs in for a fresh refill for a while because of the coronavirus outbreak, the company said Wednesday.
"We are optimistic this will be a temporary situation," executive vice president Rossann Williams said in an open letter posted on Starbucks' website, reports CNN.
Williams also said the company has restricted all of its business-related air travel, both domestic and international, through the end of March, and has modified or postponed large meetings in its offices in the United States and Canada. It also will be increasing the number of cleanings and sanitizing efforts at all company-operated stores.
Starbucks will still honor its discount of 10 cents per cup for anyone who brings in their own cup or tumbler for coffee, but they won't let the customers use them.
"We will continue to communicate with transparency and act courageously and responsibly to ensure the health and well-being of our partners and customers," Williams said.
Starbucks (SBUX) has not said how long it will be suspending its bring-your-own-cup program. Customers have been enjoying discounts from the Seattle-based coffee chain for using their own cups for new beverage purchases since 1985.
It also launched a program promoting the use of personal tumblers in 2010, in hopes of reducing its output of paper trash, and says it has been able to prevent millions of pounds of paper from ending up in landfills.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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