So Starbucks admitted it hasn’t lived up to its own highly trumpeted fair-trade-friendly policy to French press a cup of fair trade coffee for anyone who asks for it. It’s a “break down in customer service,” Starbucks said, and sent out some emails to its stores.
But two months into the challenge, things STILL haven’t improved much. And the mermaid STILL hasn’t answered our questions — How does Starbucks plan to fix the problem? When?
Regardless of politics, most of us agree on one thing: If a company makes a promise, it should stick to it.
Demand an answer from Starbucks! Sign our letter here!
Win a prize!
On Dec. 16, on the day of our LA-based meeting with Starbucks, City Hippy and green LA girl will award a prize to 2 people who galvanized the most people into signing the letter.
The prizes? Some Monkey & Son Krakatoa fair trade organic coffee, and fair trade yummies from Clipper-Teas.com.
And keep taking the challenge:
1) Simply visit your local Starbucks and ask: “Could I get a cup of fair trade coffee?”
2) Tell us what happens next. Was it hard or easy to get a cup?
BLOGGERS: simply blog about what happened and tag it with “starbuckschallenge” (all one word) on del.icio.us (put the Starbucks location in the “extended” description). We’ll pull all articles into a feed and run that on our site - you can run the feed too, of course, if you’d like. ALSO help us get feedback by telling people about this challenge on your blogs.
NON-BLOGGERS: tell us what happened by emailing City Hippy or green LA girl, and we’ll do the rest.
Challenge results
We’ll be in frequent contact with Starbucks, but on Dec. 16, City Hippy and green LA girl will go to Starbucks with the letter and demand some concrete details as to what the company plans to do, if anything.
Keep taking challenges, and please feel free to let us know what YOU think our next step should be as activists, and what you think Starbucks’ next step should be as a company that says it wants to be a leader in corporate social responsibility.
Have a fair trade day.
Some fun stuff –
- The original Starbucks Challenge launch post, and Starbucks Challenge 2.0.
- The Starbucks Challenge FAQ.
- Starbucks Challenge’s del.icio.us feed.
- Starbucks Challenge’s Google Map.
Update, 12/8/05: Cindy says she’ll answer the questions in the letter before xmas. But I’m hoping she’ll bet back to us before the 16th –
Update, 12/9/05: A handy FAQ about Starbucks’ current fair trade policies.
Update, 12/10/05: Some inside scoop about how Starbucks’ corporate policy translates to store action.
Update, 12/12/05: Challenge on — and be kind to baristas while you’re at it.
Update, 12/13/05: No no no — Starbucks coffee is NOT all fair trade, even though your baristas may’ve been trained to believe that.
Update, 12/16/05: LA Starbucks managers promise to fix the break down in customer service — partially within 3 months from now, and fully within 9 months.
Update, 12/16/05: Starbucks Challenge 3.0 winner: faboo! Congrats, and look out for the next challenge the first week of January 2006!
Updates: Cindy of Starbucks responds to our letter on the last business day before xmas. Read the response here (12/23/05), and read our response to her letter here (12/28/05).
FEED (del.icio.us/starbuckschallenge):
Filed in: starbuckschallenge coffee csr fairtrade starbucks
December 10th, 2005 at 6:39 am
As a former Starbucks barista, I can tell you why my store wouldn’t have been able to meet the Challenge — we were never sent any Fair Trade coffee from HQ. Smaller Starbucks stores only get the top 8 to 12 coffees to put out on sale, and the Fair Trade coffee was not one of them. Had we actually had any Fair Trade coffee in the store, we would have happily brewed a French Press pot for a customer.
In short, don’t blame the local store, blame HQ.
December 15th, 2005 at 8:01 am
[…] I join Presh for her morning coffee run and we decide to take the Starbucks Challenge. The last time I ventured out to Starbucks was on Halloween (they failed the challenge). […]
December 16th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
Hey ExSFBarista — I asked one of the Starbucks managers about this today. She told me that this shouldn’t be happening, but agreed that some glitch may be making it happen (I ran into a similar situation at a Starbucks in West Hollywood). So hopefully all the stores will soon have fair trade in stock –
December 27th, 2005 at 9:12 am
You know I hate Starbucks
But some people take it a step further. A bunch of international bloggers have launched the Starbucks Challenge. They go into starbucks and ask for the Fair Trade blend. Tunrs out they weren’t having universal luck finding it.
December 30th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
you should do a lot more research before you make comments re: starbucks. I know you must not be aware of the wonderful benefits they really do offer to their employees and farmers around the world. Of course you would not know because you do not work for them. I am amazed how people can be so ignorant. Tell me about the good things starbucks is doing the cities, states, and around the world. That is my challange to you. leave it on your website… actually what r u doing for the world???
February 28th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Actually, I DO know about the benefits they offer. I know that a smaller percentage Starbucks employees are covered by its benefits programs than are Walmart employees . What’re your thoughts on that?
While you’re at it — I’d love to hear what YOU’re doing for the world… I, too, am amazed by how people can be so ignorant.
June 19th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Very needed information found here, thank you for your work
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:29 am
Where is there anything anywhere that says that a fewer percentage of starbucks employees are covered by their benefits programs than at Walmart? I can’t find it…If you can work twenty hours a week at Starbucks, you’re eligible for full benefits, as well as benefits for your family, or your gay partner, if you so choose…As far as the fair trade issue goes…are any of you coffee buyers? In the countries where the bulk of coffee is grown the governments are corrupt and fair trade certification is nothing more than a kickback that is ultimately useless to the farmers and their communities… some people will believe anything that they read, though…
June 23rd, 2006 at 11:38 am
Hey Danni — I made an oopsie with the link. Here’s the link to the post, and here’s one to .the Wall Street Journal article that cites the stats.
I’m only a coffee buyer in the sense that I’m a consumer — I don’t buy it directly from farmers. However, many of the readers and commenters here are direct coffee buyers, and even those who disagree with some elements of the fair trade certification programs don’t say that it’s “nothing more than a kickback.” You might find Geoff of Intelligentsia Coffee’s comments interesting –
June 24th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
thanks for the links…but…65% of employees are eligible for full benefits after two months…that’s pretty darn good, considering that this is coffee…. not rocket science. I really enjoyed geoff’s comments on why he didn’t go fair trade…anytime you have another agency involved in the buying relationship you are taking resources away from the growers…it’s a shame that certain companies would take advantage of low coffee prices..I still believe that pressuring companies to have responsibility is the right way to go… check out elfaroestates.com if you want to find out how starbucks works with their growers..
June 25th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I still think 3rd party cert’s important — Think about organic certification, for ex. Without it, you’d really have to become a guerilla investigator to find out if your veggies had been sprayed with noxious chemicals. Of course, organic certification doesn’t make all ag-related probs go away — It’s not a panacea. But it’s a part of the solution — it makes sure at least some minimum standards have been met. I see fair trade certification similarly. No, it’s not going to solve all labor-related problems. But it does take a step toward addressing them — and communicates that to the consumer –
November 6th, 2007 at 7:52 am
I was at University of Maryland for Powershift and we ordered a cup of fair trade coffee, the cashier started to say no, but then the manager stepped over and said it would take a few minutes to brew but we could definitely have one. So a success.