Starbucks this month is initiating a change in its code of conduct in an attempt to improve the experience and safety of its customers and staff by no longer allowing the general public to use the premises and bathrooms unless they've made a purchase, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

This reverses a policy started in 2018 by which the store permitted access to its bathrooms and facilities regardless if one bought anything.

The new policy also includes adding signs banning harassment, violence, threatening language, outside alcohol, smoking, and panhandling in its stores, according to employee notices viewed by the Journal.

The new rules are part of the company's broader attempt to make its stores more hospitable after suffering a downturn in customer traffic and falling sales.

"There is a need to reset expectations for how our spaces should be used and who uses them," Starbucks North America President Sara Trilling said in a letter sent this week.

The policy that began in 2018 was a response to the arrest of two men at one of its stores in Philadelphia, after one of them tried to use the bathroom while the other sat at a table without buying anything.

The incident was widely criticized, after which Starbucks temporarily closed all of its U.S. stores to carry out training in racial sensitivity. The men later sued the company and settled for an undisclosed amount.

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