Fifth time’s a charm — especially if you get multiple baristas involved. I asked for fair trade coffee, about which Barista 1 asked Barista 2, who informed B1 that Cafe Estima is fair trade. Luckily, it was brewing at this Beverly Hills store on Olympic :)
I think B1 was new, judging from the way she had a lil reference book of some sort right next to her, which she flipped through after my request before resorting to seeking B2’s advice. Mid-flip, I asked “Oh, are you new?” in what I thought was a friendly manner — but was met with a curt “no” and a frown.
Whatev — Maybe it was a rough day? But the whole thing made me think more about what Roger, gone green said in a comment — He feels challengers should take an active role in educating baristas about the fair trade polcies of Starbucks.
I disagree — I don’t think it’s the activist’s “duty” to educate Starbucks baristas on the company policies. Still, Roger has a point — challengers doing so might help speed up the process of fair trade education within Starbucks, which over time might result in more fair trade coffee being sold at the mermaid.
But — I do wonder if challengers’ efforts to “educate” baristas could have the unintended effect of pissing off baristas who don’t wanna be told how to do their jobs by the customers. Roger advocates that challengers give baristas “A little education — combined with a suggestion that they need to read the Scoop and the work book materials on FT.” Yet I’m quite sure that if I’d said anything else about fair trade to B1 today, I might’ve turned her off of fair trade coffee — and everyone who drinks the stuff — forever.
I’m wondering what both baristas and other challengers think would be the best approach?
Hey, congratulations on the Challenge 3.5 success! I grew up in a Protestant Christian family, and even though I don’t have the same beliefs as the rest of my family I did learn a lot of useful stuff from all the years of Sunday School. I was always taught to read opportunities for proselytizing — not to just push it on people. It’s true, when you have a message to give, you want the person to be receptive. Think about annoying pop-under ads and door-to-door salespeople. They turn you off, right? So when I do a challenge I share information about Fair Trade when I see the opportunity. It won’t work if it isn’t natural in the verbal exchange.
Of course some people just have more charisma than me and can be successful with cold sales. But this is what works for me. Siel, I would have done the same thing in your situation.
Comment by wheeledmenace — January 7, 2006 @ 6:56 pm
Tee hee :) I’m a preacher’s kid turned atheist, so maybe this is why we feel similarly :)
I think I could do a hesitant, “Um, I belive that Cafe Estima’s fair trade certified?” if the barista has no clue. But there’s really no way I’d tell the barista they need to go read Scoop and their workbook materials. I just don’t see that going over well, even with charisma…
Comment by Siel — January 7, 2006 @ 10:02 pm
Congrats Siel :-) Boy..it’s been very warm here in this blog room ;-) Keep strong and follow what your heart tells you. Keep your focus, ok? Good luck for more 3.5 successes…
Comment by Maya — January 8, 2006 @ 12:14 am
Hmmm..this is just me, I would feel uncomfortable also to ‘force’ educate people when it is not my responsibility. I imagine myself in the barista position, I’d get pissed at someone who without explaining nicely what’s going on..start telling me how to do my job. On the other side, when the explanation or education you might say is done on a respectful ground level, it’d be more receptive in my brain and ears. So I would say, do whatever fit within the environment and interaction you encounter.
The big point is still the responsibility of Sbx to educate its own franchises and baristas and to stand on what they promised. All we can do, the supporters of fair trade coffees, is to create more opportunities of effective exhanges that will turn into a real activism in Fair Trade concept. Well..I may not impress others much in the writing departments, but I hope you understand what I’m trying to say…We should be pro-active with respect and cautions. We all have a part in this world. We can’t do it all alone…we don’t know it all…Cheers
Comment by Maya — January 8, 2006 @ 12:25 am
Thanks for the interesting dialogue. It really sparks thought around what “activism” is or how it is defined. I am a graduate student studying effective, sustainable social change. (I’m a barista as Starbucks for the health insurance and flexible schedule.) :-)
As a barista, I am NEVER offended when a customer sincerely engages with me about any issue around coffee. Say I knew nothing of FT, and a customer came in and asked for a cup of FT. I may say, “our coffee brewing today is such and such.” (Because I don’t know what they are asking for but want to be helpful.) If the customer said, “I support FT, and I heard your Cafe Estima is FT. Have you tasted it? Would you mind pressing a cup for me? If you are interested you can taste it with me?” I would be excited to help, taste Cafe Estima and talk to the customer about FT. So the next customer that asks for it will get it plus I can talk about what an excellent coffee it is.
So I do believe that there is a way to engage sincerely, kindly without arrogance or self-righteousness. Because if I feel that I am being condesended to or “tricked” to prove a point, I would be less likely to learn and want to help. I think that is human nature.
So the question is “Is it the customers’ responsibility to help train the baristas?” I guess it depends on your goal.
Is your goal to support and further develop the Fair Trade movement? Or is your goal to verify that Starbucks is following company policy?
If it is to support FT, then yes, it is the customers’ responsibility to be part of the training for baristas or anyone and everyone on FT issues, and why it is so important to the coffee industry. Dialogue and education is key to sustainable change.
If it is to see if Starbucks is following company policy, then no, it isn’t the customers’ responsibility.
So which is it? You said so yourself, “…many challengers have joined in because they want to see if big corps like Starbucks do what they say, and are less concerned about fair trade issues.” If this is the case, then you should be asking for other kinds of coffee by the cup that is not the COW. And stop making it a FT issue and make it truly what it is a operational issue.
But to me, it sounds like you want it to be a FT issue from your previous posts “…management and corporate could do a much better job at training to making sure Starbucks’ fair trade policies are carried out at the barista level.”
So what are Starbucks FT policies? What are the “promises” you keep asking them to keep? Did Starbucks promise you that all their baristas would be experts in Fair Trade coffee? Did they promise you that they will purchase more than 10 pounds of FT coffee this year? Or did they promise you that if you wanted a coffe that wasn’t brewed as COW, you could request a coffee press? Again, I see the operational issue as separate from the FT issue.
I completely agree with Roger, “IF you want change, and claim activist status, then one should act affirmatively to achieve the FT goal.” He is right on the money about achieving social change. Thanks, Roger, for pointing out the other point of view!
Starbucks could easily say, “As a business, it is not our responsibility to promote or educate consumers on FT issues. Our most impactful contribution to the FT movement is the amount of FT coffee we buy.” So if it is not the customers’ responsibility or the company’s responsibility, whose is it? And who truly suffers in the end?
When creating social change, a professor told me that it is important to “not let the need to be right interfere with doing what is right.”
I would love to hear others thoughts on effective activism and social change.
Thanks everyone!
Comment by BaristaJockey — January 9, 2006 @ 3:12 pm
Hey BaristaJockey — I love you — Please move to Los Angeles, preferably to the store on Hoover and Pico, where many USC students have requested fair trade coffee and been rebuffed — I mean REALLY rebuffed, as in told “We don’t do French presses” or just a straight out “No” in a get-the-fuck-outta-my-face manner.
Anyway — You bring up really great points here :) Thanks for engaging me, us!
About ordering other coffees when testing operational stuff — Excepting fair trade coffee, Starbucks has not made any PUBLIC promises about French pressing any of its other blends. Meaning, Starbucks’ website says that customers who request a fair trade cup o’ coffee can get it, though it says nothing about the other blends.
We’ve since discovered, through convos with Starbucks, that this goes for every blend. However, this is an internal thing — Starbucks has NOT made any public guarantees that any of the other blends will be avaliable via French press — Thus the focus on the fair trade blend.
That said, several challengers have gone in, asking for either organic or shade grown stuff — with similar results as requesting fair trade :p
But maybe, as the Challenge enters 4.0, this education on the part of the challenger thing’s something to give more attention to! Before, since many challengers were just learning about Starbucks’ fair trade policies, we wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Perhaps now’s the time to encourage activists to take a more active role?
I’m still a lil wary of doing this, just cuz many challengers are afraid to “push” — Many actually “give up” after simply being told by the barista that some other blends are currently being featured, cuz they don’t want to repeat their request. No one wants to be the demanding asshole, know what I mean? (Meaning, we don’t have nice baristas like you everywhere :)
I feel like the challenge is kind of in a rough spot, with no clear entity at Starbucks to “blame.” Meaning, if Starbucks says they’ll do something, they should carry out that promise, yes? But the CSR dept. blames the communication systems and the managers’ training efforts (or lack thereof), the managers blame HQ for innundating them with emails and the baristas for not paying attention, and the baristas blame the managers for not telling them about the policy and HQ for not emphasizing it (and the challengers for asking for it).
To me, Starbucks often seems like a large, postmodern machine. You know, like the breast that bounces merrily along in Woody Allen’s “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex,” wreaking havok without any discernable reason, meaning, purpose, logic, or strategy — and no one to blame.
Which leaves the burden on the activists. And I do agree that, if you want change, you gotta make it happen. What I’m grappling with here is, when does corporate responsibility end and grassroots activism begin? When can we say to Starbucks, “You’re not holding up your end of the bargain,” and when do we point that finger at ourselves?
Comment by Siel — January 9, 2006 @ 8:38 pm