Our response to the letter from Cindy of Starbucks follows. Look out for the new Starbucks Challenge, launching in the new year!

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Dear Cindy –

Thanks for your detailed letter! We really appreciate the time that you as an individual, and Starbucks as a corporation, have taken to respond to consumer concerns about fair trade coffee.

While we did hope for more detailed and concrete answers regarding Starbucks’ “break down in customer service,” it seems, from your letter, that Starbucks has heard our concerns, admitted to shortcomings, and promised to work on doing better. We look forward to successful, hassle-free, pleasant interactions, both for the baristas and the customers, during future Starbucks Challenges :) Thank you in advance for your work toward making this happen!

We also really appreciate your honesty, verifying that, indeed, a large chunk (41%) of Starbucks coffee is purchased through contracts without transparancy clauses — making it impossible to figure out if coffee farmers are getting a fair deal.

In light of this, however, we’re left wondering why Starbucks continues to train its baristas to tell customers that ALL of its coffee is “pretty much fair trade.” We’re more than a little concerned that the baristas are — for the most part, unknowingly — taught to believe and market ALL of Starbucks as fair trade, when clearly, that statement is untrue, as of now. This misinformation then creates confusion for the customers.

As you can imagine, inflated, exaggerated claims of the progress that Starbucks has made in terms of fair trade practices makes customers doubt ALL of the claims that Starbucks makes — even if Starbucks might do wonderful things! Worse, some of your baristas are already upset that they’ve been “duped” about Starbucks’ current trade policies.

Please understand that we sincerely applaud Starbucks for working towards the goal of making sure its farmers are paid a fair price — a goal that we wish more big coffee companies would work toward. We hope that your current efforts toward more transparancy will help you achieve that goal in the near future — And we do understand this work takes time.

Cindy — Would Starbucks instead let its employees and customers know that NOT ALL of Starbucks’ coffee is fairly traded as of now, although the mermaid is working towards that goal?

Also, if Starbucks is proud of its ethical coffee achievements, why not promote fair trade coffee — beyond just marking it up on the board when it’s brewing? Customers often do not even know fair trade coffee is available by request, which makes Starbucks look less than committed to gauging customer demand for fair trade coffee. A true measure of fair trade demand will only be possible when customers know about its avaliability.

We’re hoping that this proposed change will be a welcome one on Starbucks part — We’re especially encouraged by your statement that Starbucks’ “goal is to be as honest and forthright as possible.” Through its honesty, we hope that Starbucks will influence other biggies such as P&G and Nestle, perhaps poking those companies into shaping up.

Thanks again :) We look forward to hearing from you.

City Hippy, green LA girl, and many concerned customers

(Challengers — Please feel free to add your own comments, if you’d like to.)

Tags: starbuckschallenge, starbucks, coffee, fairtrade,

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