SEOUL – A South Korean customer who ordered coffee under his surname, Kim, at a Starbucks location at Hong Kong International Airport on the evening of Oct. 11 was taken aback when he discovered that his drinks had been labeled “Kimchi.”
Kim, 38, had stopped at the store before boarding a flight to Seoul with his wife. When his order was called out as “Kim,” he collected the drinks without checking the labels. It was only while waiting to board that he noticed the name printed on the cups.
Baffled by the label, he returned to the Starbucks outlet in the airport’s Departures West Hall near Gate 61 to seek an explanation.
“At the time (I collected drinks), we saw two staff members smiling at each other while looking at the monitor,” Kim told The Korea Herald, requesting to be identified only by his surname. “We didn’t think much of it then, assuming they were smiling about something else.”
When Kim asked about the label, the employee who had taken his order apologized, saying she had entered the wrong name by mistake and had not intended to cause offense, according to Kim.
Dissatisfied with the explanation, Kim asked to speak with a supervisor, questioning how his surname could have been changed from “Kim” to “Kimchi” accidentally.
A shift supervisor, identified by the surname Yu, showed Kim the register screen, explaining that the employee had entered “Kim” but accidentally selected “Kimchi” while scrolling through the options. Yu described the action as “not polite,” Kim said.
After examining the system interface shown by the supervisor, however, Kim questioned whether the change could have been accidental, saying it appeared to require additional input rather than occurring automatically.
Kim said he requested an apology and information about measures to prevent similar incidents, but had received no further response before he contacted The Korea Herald.
Six days after The Korea Herald sent an inquiry about the incident, Starbucks Hong Kong issued an apology.
“We sincerely apologize to the customer for the distress and concern caused,” Starbucks Hong Kong said in a written statement to The Korea Herald on Tuesday.
“We do not tolerate discrimination or disrespectful behavior, and we take any concerns about language or conduct that may cause offense seriously.”
The company added that it had contacted Kim to offer a direct apology and would strengthen internal training to help prevent similar incidents in the future.
ANN/The Korea Herald