The mega-coffee shop’s smoking policy currently lets customers light up as long as they are not on the store’s patio. Some LA smokers say they’re fuming over the shift, while others say it’s another sign for them to quit. Kim Baldonado reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on May 30, 2013.
Coffee and cigarettes, for some, are an inseparable pair. But if that coffee is from Starbucks, smokers will have to take a walk if they want to light up.
Cigarettes and their electronic counterparts are no longer allowed within 25 feet of any Starbucks storefront in the U.S. or Canada starting Saturday, according to a manager of a Starbucks in LA’s Little Tokyo.
An employee at another LA Starbucks confirmed the policy change.
The mega-coffee shop’s smoking policy currently lets customers light up as long as they are not on the store’s patio, which means sometimes smokers are feet away from other patrons or on the other side of an open-air gate.
Smoking is banned inside all Starbucks locations.
Californians are already barred from smoking in any outdoor area within 20 feet of a public-owned building.
NOTE: An earlier version of this report stated that smoking is prohibited within 20 feet of a "public building" in California. Smoking is banned with 20 feet of a public-owned building, such as a state, city or county property.
