After a rum-doused dinner at Celestin’s last night, I talked my Sacramento friends Scott and Amber into taking the Starbucks Challenge. Or more accurately, I talked them into watching me take the challenge.
The store — at the corner of J and 19th — was still quite crowded at 10 pm.
Me: Hello — Could I get a cup of fair trade coffee here?
Barista: We’re brewing (something else) tonight –
I forget what blend this was, because, to be honest, I wasn’t listening — I knew that’s what he would say.
Me: Would you be able to French press a cup of fair trade for me?
Barista: Sure!
About 10 minutes later, the barista came out from behind the counter to find me and hand me a venti cup of fair trade coffee — I’d only paid for a tall.
Gotta love tha customer service. But I wonder why it is that Starbucks tells baristas to first tell the customer what’s brewing, when obviously that’s not what the customer wants if she has specifically requested fair trade. To me, that seems like a policy aimed at discouraging customers from ordering fair trade coffee. And this discouragement usually works, especially if there are other Starbucks customers waiting behind you for their shot of java.
Just one of the things I plan to ask Cindy of Starbucks about tomorrow –
**Update, 10/10/05: 1st chat with Cindy of Starbucks.
Filed in: starbuckschallenge trade business cityhippy coffee csr fairtrade losangeles starbucks
A suggestion: Would you also ask Cindy from Starbucks about having an fair-trade espresso blend? I feel that more people will prefer to get a fair trade espresso shot or an Americano rather than a French pressed cup. The barista at my local Starbucks said that by default they have to charge me the venti price for the French pressed cup which adds to the discouragement. I personally cannot handle that much caffein (let alone the price).
Comment by Transmogrifier — October 9, 2005 @ 7:08 pm
The Starbucks policy is for efficiency and, as you said, usually works.
Comment by Yoga Korunta — October 10, 2005 @ 7:21 am
Yeah — It worked again today, in Georgia.
BTW — really like the random question & answer on your blogger profile — Very fitting for a yogi :) Ashtanga, anyone?
Transmogrifier — I’ll definitely add those to the list of Qs. Sadly, I don’t remember how much the barista charged me for my ordered-tall-but-got-venti fair trade cup in Sacramento. I thought the guy was just being nice, but maybe he was just trying to give me my money’s worth?
Comment by Siel — October 10, 2005 @ 3:45 pm
Seems to me that it’s not so much discouragement as letting people know what’s already being brewed in case they’d prefer that. It’s just good business sense to do that rather than fresh-brewing a cup of a different roast for every customer.
Not everything’s a conspiracy.
Comment by DD — October 25, 2005 @ 1:00 pm
Eh, maybe you’re right. But it really wasn’t a “Hey, wanna know the specials?” kind of tone, but a “Quit makin’ trouble” kid.
And it is indeed NOT a conspiracy at the headquarters level — According to official Starbucks policy, as I found out via Cindy in the CSR department (see recent posts), a request for fair trade coffee should immediately elicit an offer for a fair trade cup — WITHOUT “letting people know what’s already being brewed.”
Comment by Siel — October 25, 2005 @ 2:26 pm