Starbucks Korea will temporarily close all of its more than 2,000 stores on 22 June so that staff can receive training in Korean history and social sensitivity, following a promotional campaign that caused widespread public outrage by evoking one of the country's most painful historical traumas. Outlets across South Korea will close at 3pm local time for three hours and will not reopen until the following day — the first simultaneous nationwide closure since the chain entered the South Korean market in 1999. The only exceptions will be a small number of airport locations. The half-day shutdown is estimated to cost around 2.1 billion won (approximately $1.4 million) in lost sales.

The crisis was triggered on 18 May, the 46th anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising, when Starbucks Korea ran a discount promotion for its "Tank" series of reusable drink tumblers, branding the day "Tank Day." The Gwangju Uprising refers to a ten-day pro-democracy protest in Gwangju, a city in southwestern South Korea, that was violently crushed in 1980 by paratroopers acting under military strongman Chun Doo-hwan. The official death toll stands at 165 civilians, though many believe the true figure to be considerably higher. Subsequent investigations also confirmed that troops committed rape and sexual assault during the crackdown. The uprising became a defining moment in South Korea's path toward democracy, inspiring activism that ultimately toppled Chun's regime by 1988.

The marketing material compounded the offence further. Promotional copy used a Korean word meaning "thwack" or "slap on the table" — a term that carries a specific and notorious resonance: in 1987, police falsely claimed that student activist Park Jong-chul had died during interrogation when an officer accidentally "hit the desk with a thwack." He had in fact been tortured to death. Shinsegae Group, the South Korean conglomerate that operates Starbucks Korea under licence from the US parent company, later revealed that an AI tool had suggested the slogan, and that some managers who approved the campaign had never opened the email attachments containing the actual marketing material. There had also been no legal review of the content.

The fallout was swift and severe. Starbucks Korea's chief executive was dismissed on the day the scandal broke, and payment volumes at the chain fell 26% in the immediate aftermath. Protests were held outside stores in Seoul and Gwangju, and some customers smashed Starbucks mugs and tumblers in public demonstrations. Several government ministries cut ties with the chain. South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung described the campaign as "inhumane and disgraceful conduct." Shinsegae Group chair Chung Yong-jin issued a written apology and bowed three times at a televised press conference; Starbucks' Seattle headquarters also sent a formal written apology to the May 18 Foundation, one of the main bodies representing Gwangju victims. Both Chung and the former chief executive have since been registered as criminal suspects by Seoul police, though an internal investigation found no evidence of deliberate intent.

The mandatory training, which will cover major events in contemporary Korean history and the importance of social sensitivity in marketing, will be led in part by Koo Jeong-woo, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. Chung and senior executives from Shinsegae affiliates will undergo a separate session on 24 June. The company said the shutdown was intended to demonstrate the seriousness with which it viewed the incident and to prevent similar controversies in future. Sales have shown tentative signs of recovery — rising 12.8% in the first week of June — but remain roughly 25% below pre-scandal levels. South Korea is Starbucks' third-largest market globally, after the United States and China, making the reputational stakes particularly high.