A petition calling for Starbucks (SBUX) to stop doing business in Trump Tower and other real estate owned by the Republican nominee for president has garnered nearly all the signatures it needs to reach its goal.
As of early evening Friday, the online petition was 100 signatures shy of its target of 8,000. It implores the coffee chain to “terminate your leases at Trump properties” on the grounds that Donald Trump’s comments about Mexicans,Muslims, and women conflict with Starbucks’ “values [of] belonging, inclusion, and diversity.”
Another petition on Change.org asks Starbucks and other retailers including Nike (NKE) and Gucci to move out of buildings bearing Trump’s name; nearly 90,000 people have signed it, out of a goal of 150,000.
Starbucks did not respond to requests for comment about the number of its stores located in Trump properties, and whether it would consider closing them.
Starbucks has become an unexpected battleground for the Donald Trump campaign. In November, Trump suggested boycotting Starbucks after the coffee chain unveiled an all-red holiday cup free of its usual Christmas insignia. (At the same time, he declared the Trump Tower location on 5th Avenue in New York City “one of the most successful Starbucks,” according to CNN.) Then earlier this year, pro-Trump posters were displayed in the windows of a Starbucks store in Manhattan’s East Village, but were quickly removed, DNAinfo reported. And in April, “Happy Days” actor and Trump supporter Scott Baio gave the GOP candidate’s name with his Starbucks order but “the barista refused to call [it] out,” Baio tweeted.
Got wife a coffee(I've never had a cup)The barista refused to call out name. @realDonaldTrump#MustBeABernieVoterpic.twitter.com/n1nQaP9lNy
— Scott Baio (@ScottBaio) April 2, 2016
Of course, even if the petitions achieve their signature goals, there’s no guarantee that it will pressure Starbucks into abandoning its real estate deals with Trump.
Coins2Day will update this story if Starbucks responds.