Starbucks Barista Refuses to Serve Customer Not Wearing a Face Mask; Social Media Users Support Him With Tip of Almost $100,000 The woman vented on Facebook, but people raised funds for the employee instead.
By Entrepreneur Staff •
The use of face masks has become a basic aspect in our daily life, but there are still some skeptics who decide not to use them. Such is the case of a woman who visited a Starbucks in San Diego, whose service was denied for not wearing the mask.
The barista, Lenin Gutiérrez, refused to attend to Amber Lynn Gilles, as announced by the enraged customer in a Facebook post. However, thousands of users were outraged by Amber's attitude. She replied that "they do not scare or bother her," called them "losers" and added that "they had nothing better to do."
"Meet Lenen [sic] from Starbucks who refused to serve me because I'm not wearing a mask," reads Gilles' post, which was accompanied by a photograph of the young man. "Next time I will wait for the police and I will bring a medical exception."
From there, a GoFundMe initiative was born that has raised (so far) more than $94,000 in tips for the barista, to which he responded with a moving video saying that he will use it to fulfill his dream of becoming a dancer and teaching others to dance.
In San Diego County, it was decreed that "everyone must wear face covers if they are inside or queuing to enter any closed public space."
