Starbucks stops cap on PWD, seniors discount

THE local chain of the coffee shop Starbucks has suspended its illegal move to limit the 20 percent discount and exemption from the 12 percent value added tax of senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) as a committee of the House of Representatives opened its investigation into the failure of business establishments to comply with existing laws mandating the grant of discounts to the elderly and disabled.

Lawmakers have said that Starbucks’ practice of limiting the discounts of senior citizens and PWDs to only one food item and one drink per visit was a blatant violation of the law.

Angela Cole, operations director of Starbucks Coffee, acknowledged during the hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means that the company that the company made a “mistake” and that they have ordered the “immediate removal of the erroneous signages.”

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, panel chair, ordered Starbucks Philippines, through its licensee Rustan Coffee Corp., to offer a drink and croissant to seniors and PWDs for a day as “as penance,” warning that the company may face prosecution for supposedly violating Republic Act No. 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 and RA 10754, or the Act Expanding the Benefits and Privileges of PWDs.

“As penance, so, declare tomorrow as PWD and senior citizen day? Will you? So that you don’t repeat it?” Salceda asked Cole, who said: “I don’t know about the libre (freebies) but we will be more than happy to extend the discount that is rightfully, you know, to value our senior citizens and PWD customers.”

Salceda then proposed writing a letter to Rustan Coffee Corp. for a formal request, to which Cole agreed. “Sorry is not enough,” he said. “You know, your gross is 43 percent, so, in other words, your add-on is about 60 (percent), so that’s nothing and also these are old people, they cannot flock to Rustan’s.”

“You violated the law. Saying sorry is not enough. We will consider initiating prosecution,” Salceda told Cole, who promised to communicate the lawmaker’s demand to her bosses.

Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) said that Starbucks would not have rectified its error had Speaker Martin Romualdez, the principal author of RA