What your participation in the Starbucks Challenge has done so far:

1. Starbucks admitted that there IS a problem: a break down in customer service.

2. Starbucks sent out a bunch of emails to take care of the problem — which totally worked for the Starbucks in Singapore, but not for most of the US Starbucks — especially many in LA.

3. Starbucks admitted the emails, sadly, were not doing the job, and said they’ll set up, before the end of the month, a meeting between me (and hopefully some other bloggers), Starbucks CSR reps, and district managers in the LA area.

4. [*NEW*] By May 2006, Starbucks will include a lil video in its “new partner learning program” that’ll reiterate Starbucks’ policy to provide customers with a French press — including Cafe Estima, Starbucks’ lone fair trade certified blend sold in stores. This means new baristas will be officially taught about Starbucks French-press-on-demand policy through a video during their first few weeks of work!

Pretty cool, eh? Thanks everyone for challenging — and please, take more challenges! As I’ve mentioned before, since it’s still rather difficult to come by a French-pressed cup of fair trade coffee in many Starbucks all over the US, a meeting with the managers in the LA area will NOT be an end-all to the problem. [gratuitous USC fair trade coffee tasting pics, right and below]

Cuz, you know, I’m an impatient gal, and I want my fair trade coffee, any place where Starbucks sits, before May 2006! After all, Starbucks has been making this fair-trade-on-demand promise for a long long time. Starbucks headquarters has been able to get the word out about its holiday coffee offerings pretty speedily and efficiently — which makes me think that, if the mermaid was pressured to, it could quickly get the word out about the “break down in customer service” situation.

I do think that Cindy and Major are working on the problem — It’s a matter of if and when they can nudge the behemoth corporation into doing the same. For that, more challenges are vital.

Somewhat relatedly — Lloyd of The Year of the Coffee Blog interviewed me — and the interview’s avaliable as a podcast on The Coffee Sessions! You can hear me ramble about fair trade coffee and knitting while hung over and the general aimlessness of my grad student life.

I’d like to say that my voice is NOT as nasal or high pitched or staticky or machine-like as it sounds on the podcast! At least, I don’t think so… I mean, back in college when I sang, I was an alto! The static/machine bit’s kinda my fault — I planned badly, and so had to do the interview via cell phone while sitting in Literati Cafe (thus the background noise), staring at and waiting to eat veggie lasagna –

Eh — The lasagna was yummy –

Filed in: starbuckschallenge coffee csr fair-trade fairtrade starbucks

2 Comments