Starbucks stores in the UK are going cashless.
There is no plan for Starbucks stores across the UK to go cashless. Starbucks runs a franchise model in the UK, and a sign about cashless payments shared widely on social media is from one store.
Claims that Starbucks will soon be going cashless in the UK, based on a picture taken at one branch of the chain, have been shared thousands of times on social media.
The claim appears to originate from a photo first shared on Twitter, which shows a sign at a Starbucks store with the notice: “We’re going cashless.
“From 1st October 2022 we will only be accepting card, contactless & Starbucks rewards payments.
“Please ask our team for further details.”
Many of the claims we’ve seen on social media imply that this change is due to take place across all of Starbucks’ UK stores, and urge customers to boycott the chain.
However, as the brand themselves have confirmed via Twitter, this is not true.
In a statement to Full Fact, a spokesperson said: “Starbucks has no plans to go cashless across our UK stores and we want to shut down any inaccuracies or further speculation on this matter.
“In the UK, we operate alongside various licensee business partners, which means this may vary from store to store and the majority of stores continue to offer cash payments to customers.”
Full Fact asked Starbucks whether or not all Starbucks stores are free to go cashless if they choose to do so, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Image courtesy of Sorin Sîrbu
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because the sign pictured is from just one Starbucks location. The brand has confirmed that this change does not apply to all Starbucks stores.
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