Ah — for a decaf soy fair trade latte. Even in the fair trade friendlier UK, you can’t get a fair trade espresso drink at Starbucks, as Adventures in Ethical Consumerism found out. The fair trade Cafe Estima blend is not an espresso blend — though Cindy of Starbucks says Cafe Estima is darker than the previous Fair Trade Blend, and could be used to make espresso drinks at home “if you had to.”

But what would it take for Starbucks to offer an espresso blend? Cindy said that customer demand for fair trade is low at the moment, and that making fair trade more readily avaliable — with more options, blends, etc. — is simply a matter of building customer demand.

OK. I get that people have to ask for fair trade for Starbucks to offer it. But as I read more and more of these Starbucks Challenge accounts, I get the feeling that often, Starbucks really doesn’t want us to ask.

How’s customer demand for fair trade coffee suppressed? Read on:

I don’t wanna be an asshole: Some bloggers have said that by making customers ask for a French pressed cup — when the barista’s already busy and a caffeine deprived line’s developing — is enough to keep people from asking for fair trade coffee. in over your head sums it up nicely: “no one wants to be that asshole who makes the minimum wage labour monkey do that extra work - those people are already getting too much hassle for their hourly rate.” (I’ll point out here that I think most Starbucks baristas are paid a few bucks above the minimum wage rate and given progressive health benefits and stock options)

A good point, but it’s tough to prove that there’s enough demand for fair trade coffee to keep it brewing all the time — Starbucks can claim — and may be correct in claiming — that keeping the stuff brewing all the time for the once-in-a-blue-moon fair trade customer would not be financially sound.

That said, customers who buck the trend and request fair trade are still often met with resistance. As I and many other bloggers have noted before, many baristas are trained to respond to a request for fair trade coffee by rattling off a list of coffees that are currently brewing (read accounts here, here, here, and here — there are others). To the customer, that often translates as a big NO for their fair trade coffee request.

To get the cup, the customer then has to ignore that rattled-off list and specifically ask for a French-pressed cup, often feeling like an asshole while doing it. Many decide to forego the request for fair trade the next time around.

I don’t wanna waste coffee: If you just want a tall cup of coffee, you better learn to be satisfied with more. Unless your specific barista likes you enough to ignore store policy or doesn’t know the policy well enough to follow the rules, you have to get a venti if you request a French pressed cup. thanks for not being a zombie has more on that.

I can’t afford it: So you got a venti sized coffee, regardless of what size you actually wanted. Well — you’ll need to pay venti prices for that big coffee too.

I don’t have that much time: Getting a French-pressed cup takes around 10 minutes. And Samuel in Marina del Rey reports being told to wait until the barista got through the line of 8-10 people.

I don’t handle stress very well: Because so many of the Starbucks are unclear about the corporate fair trade policy, a request usually ends up getting a bunch of Starbucks employees involved. And, like thanks for not being a zombie points out, “it’s going to be uncomfortable any time you get all four people involved in order to get a cup of coffee.”

Which is to say that yes, customer demand is necessary — but an honest picture of what the customer demand looks like isn’t going to emerge if those demands are often nipped at the bud.

I would argue that the lack of publicity about the avaliability of fair trade coffee — as well as small yet effective resistances against providing it — is part of the reason for the “low customer demand.”

Filed in: starbuckschallenge tea trade UK USA business cityhippy coffee corporate csr drink fair fair-trade fairtrade LA London losangeles responsibility social starbucks