In my mission to get to the bottom of Starbucks’ fair trade policies, I’m beginning to look like quite the Starbucks addict (posts about my previous visits are here and here). Today’s victim: Location #5719 on Hoover and Jefferson, the one frequented by many, many USC students.
My request for fair trade coffee was met with a “What?” The barista didn’t know what fair trade was, but gathered that it was a type of coffee. “We’re only serving the House Blend and the House Decaf right now,” she said.
Me: Really? I was told that I could get a French-pressed cup of fair trade on request.
Barista: You want French-pressed?
Me: Yeah — Can you make it for me?
Barista: (circling back) “Today we have the House Blend…”
Me: But I was told by the Starbucks headquarters that you would French-press a cup of fair trade coffee for me if I asked for it.
Barista: Do you want French-press or fair trade?
Me: Um, do you know what a French-press is?
Barista: It’s a type of coffee?
Apparently, this Barista was new. After a couple more rounds of this, she went to talk to another Barista. They talked for about a minute, throwing furtive glances my way. The woman behind me was getting really, really pissed off.
Finally, the second Barista came over. “I don’t know that we have any fair trade in stock, but if there is, I can make you some.” In preparation for this, I’d been scoping the coffee rack, and pointed her to the Cafe Estima Blend with the fair trade sticker.
Barista2: No, this isn’t fair trade.
Me: Um, it has the fair trade sticker.
Barista2: Oh, yeah, but we have one that’s called “Fair Trade.” Do you want this one instead?
Me: Whichever, as long as it’s fair trade :)
So I guess not all the Starbucks have been informed about the repackaging effort (read this post for more details) that’s going on in their stores. Barista2 told me it would be 10 minutes, in a manner that wasn’t friendly, but still professional.
Ten minutes later I had my fair trade coffee. Weak and watery, but fair trade.
So yes, this Starbucks serves fair trade coffee, grudgingly, if you’re really, really, really insistent about it. The whole time I had a large and rather goofy smile on, in what I hoped conveyed a “I’m not difficult, just fair-trade-friendly” message. But I’m not sure those baristas want to see me come back. A couple more times of this, and I’d probably be dubbed the fair trade bitch.
Seriously, I feel a little bad. If anyone had been watching, I’m guessing I seemed like a demanding customer-tyrant, hassling the hard-working baristas, probably students who need the job to pay for school books and stuff, with bizarre requests.
Do I have to act like a high-maintenance diva to get some non-exploitative coffee around here?
(**Update, 9/24/05: Christina, district manager for this store, emailed me. Details here.)
Filed in: fairtrade coffee starbucks losangeles usc california
Crap training is everywhere these days. I’d cut Barista and Barista2 some slack. It doesn’t sound like the store manager or corporate headquarters are doing a good job informing the staff of Starbucks’ fair-trade marketing. That’s not the customer’s fault, even if the help thinks so.
Comment by Fletch — September 6, 2005 @ 6:18 pm
I never thought I’d “see” you resort to Michael Moore-esque guerilla tactics ;-)!
I greatly respect your focus on the fair trade issue…
P.S. Your new “official” Pixelle case is smashing–and quite stylish I would imagine among LA Green’s…
Comment by Castaway — September 6, 2005 @ 6:31 pm
Agreed, Fletch — I totally do NOT think that the fair-trade ignorance is the baristas’ fault. If Starbucks is gonna institute a policy, they should try to see it through, down to educating their baristas. It’ll be interesting once I get to talk to the district manager — I emailed them with my cell # but they haven’t gotten back to me yet — I hope they don’t blame the state of things on the baristas, or I might really turn into a fair trade bitch –
And Castaway — Thanks for the compliment on Pixelle’s case! I’m thinking of carrying her on my wrist tomorrow and walking by yarn stores to fish for more compliments –
Comment by Siel — September 6, 2005 @ 9:37 pm
The fact that they haven’t trained their employees on fair trade is indicative of their commitment to it, no? Corporate commitment begins at the cash register, notwithstanding what propaganda you hear over your phone. If they do return your message, I’d ask how their franchises are required to train their employees on what fair trade products are available.
Comment by Fletch — September 6, 2005 @ 10:29 pm
Hi Siel
I just wanted to thank you for stopping by my blog. It’s refreshing to see some one who isn’t afraid to tackle Starbucks on the issue of fair trade. I don’t believe that any Starbucks manager wouldn’t at leat know about fair trade. If you where thinking of managing a Starbucks wouldn’t you do some research into the company. I think he was putting you on.
Have a great day
Comment by Bob Tyndall — September 7, 2005 @ 7:33 am
Fletch — Good question — I’ll definitely ask Starbucks about their FT training policies. I’ve read that new employees have to read through a huge manual — I’d be curious to see how much space it devotes to fair trade. They haven’t gotten back to me yet though…
Bob — Thanks for visiting! To be fair, I don’t think any of the five Starbucks baristas I’ve spoken so far were managers, but manager or not, certainly all of them should at the very least know about fair trade. The investigation continues –
Comment by Siel — September 7, 2005 @ 1:35 pm
I’m inspired by your fair trade activism, Siel.
Massey
Comment by Anonymous — September 7, 2005 @ 2:48 pm
I just a bought bag of Green Mountain Organic Toasted Almond Fair Trade coffee from Henry’s, and it’s pretty damn good. It’s not tackling the issue head on, but I figure there is so much messed up stuff in the corporate world you can’t tackle it all, so I just let my consumer habits do the talking. And for the $7 I paid, I get about 40 more times the coffee for the price than if I bought each coffee from Starbucks, and they don’t get my business. But I admire your commitment — even though they don’t get money from me, it’s people like you who hold the companies responsible.
Comment by Russ — September 7, 2005 @ 8:51 pm
russ and Massey — Thanks :) I usually buy my coffee bagged, too, and not from Starbucks. Right now, I have too much of it — In addition to the free Starbucks stuff, my half pound from Barefoot Coffee arrived today. Plus I bought one of each Trader Joe’s brand cuz I needed the receipt to remember how much each cost for the TJ’s post. All my friends will be getting FT coffee as gifts –
Comment by Siel — September 8, 2005 @ 9:42 pm
I was wondering how difficult it was to find an espresso bar with fairtrade coffee in Southern California. I just moved back here after being in the UK for five years, and there, thanks largely to Oxfam, it’s difficult to find a coffee bar that doesn’t offer fairtrade; some of them serve fairtrade coffee exclusively.
Strangely enough, the religious left there is also rather involved in fairtrade advocacy. In the city where I lived, the Anglican church ran its own fairtrade shop and cafe. It’s certainly refreshing, as an American and an atheist, to see a Christianity more concerned with ending the exploitation of the poor than legislating people’s private sexual mores.
Anyhow, sorry to digress, just interesting to see someone around here who’s even vaguely aware of fairtrade products. Great blog. It’s little things like this that’ll keep me sane here. :)
Comment by Brian — September 11, 2005 @ 6:42 pm
Pretty damn difficult, Brian. Still searching for fair trade espresso — By the way, “fairtrade” is a trademarked word in the UK and I think Ireland, but here people still generally refer to it as fair trade — I have some leads, but need to investigate further.
Yes — it’s surprising that faith-based groups and lefty liberals are both supporting fair trade — An interesting alliance, I think. I remember seeing a bunch of flyers from Lutheran and other religious denominations at the USFT conference early this year. Being the pessimistic atheist that I am, I wondered if the religious groups were combining proselytizing efforts with the fair trade initiative — But more often than not, it seemed that faith-based groups were working with another organization — like Equal Exchange, whose website boasts an “Interfaith Program” section — to bring FT products to their churches ands stuff, as opposed to linking up directly with the coffee farmers themselves. I hope it stays that way.
Comment by Siel — September 12, 2005 @ 12:39 pm
hey there, from the uk. Our Starbucks here in Leeds all do Fair Trade as a standard - they always have FT + one other on at any one time.
Great site. Keep up the good work
Comment by dakegra — September 19, 2005 @ 12:30 pm
Glad to hear Starbucks is on top of things at Leeds — I get the sense that because fair trade awareness is so much higher in the UK, Starbucks has to shape up over there — much more than here — Hopefully they’ll begin to do the same here –
Comment by Siel — September 19, 2005 @ 5:41 pm
Hey, i realy want to thenk you for this great website,i am taking part in a debate next week about how my country(ireland) is not comitted to fair trade and this is helpful as there are starbucks here too.
Thanks a million
Comment by Teresa — January 14, 2006 @ 4:17 am