Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz continued to defend his company’s support for marriage equality at a shareholders meeting Wednesday, pointing out that “not every decision is an economic decision.” Shareholder Tom Strobhar suggested that the company’s stock dipped a bit when the National Organization for Marriage launched a “Dump Starbucks” boycott last year, but Schultz expressed no concern about the company’s viability moving forward:
STROBHAR: In the first full quarter after this boycott was announced, our sales and our earnings — shall we say politely — were a bit disappointing.
SCHULTZ:If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it’s a free country. You can sell your shares of Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much.
Even when the NOM’s boycott was making a small dent in the company’s sales, it was still performing better than the rest of the markets. The boycott campaign plateaued after just two months, having been overwhelmed by marriage equality advocates who thanked Starbucks in droves.
Last year, Starbucks encouraged Washington voters to approve the marriage equality referendum and recently joined nearly 300 other companies in filing a brief calling on the Supreme Court to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. (HT: Towleroad.)
Update:
This post has been corrected to give Strobhar proper attribution for his comments.