7 comments for Starbucks Challenge 4.0 stats »

1. 

   ah, i was wondering about this, thanks Siel :-) are you going to continue on with 4.5 or 5.0 next? good luck always…

   Comment by Maya — August 10, 2006 @ 2:34 am

2. 

   Good job Siel…

   Namaste

   Al

   Comment by Al — August 10, 2006 @ 3:02 am

3. 

   My town is getting it’s very first starbucks. It’s still under construction but once it is finished the first thing I’m going to do is buy a cup of fair trade coffee…I hope! I also want to find out if they’ll give me their used grounds for my garden. They’re supposed to save them for customers but not all locations do.

   Comment by Alotta Errata — August 11, 2006 @ 7:13 am

4. 

   hello, green girl from LA & all friends,

   I’ve accidentally ran into this blog, and have to admit I really got into it! I’m conducting a market reseach for a local specialty coffee shop, which strives to survive (even if there aren’t any starbucks around); thank you so much for all your postings and the indirect help.

   I think the entire coffee industry should be benefitting greatly from your ‘heads-up’! and Starbucks in particular should be extremely thankful, after all, you’re providing them with extremely valuable (and otherwise awfully costly) market and operational data; it would have been really stupid from their part to miss this opportunity; no wonder they got involved

   my biggest concern is this: with all the admirable efforts we put into this, it’s the end-costumer who decides, eventually, how much fair trade coffee is to be produced.. it’s as simple as it gets: if people don’t care about it, corps won’t care about it either; so, I guess my question is, what percentage of the U.S. population, for ex., look at (or even care about) how the coffee was purchased? is there a difference in regions (West, Midwest, Mid Atlantic, North East, etc)? because if that difference exists, we could emphasize the research in those particular areas

   just some thoughts…

   Comment by follower — August 11, 2006 @ 8:41 am

5. 

   Ah — the future of the challenge — That’ll depend entirely on fair trade activists who continue to push Starbucks (and on the blogosphere, on the caprices of my and City Hippy’s schedules :P)

   Alotta — Lemme know how your trial run goes!

   follower — Thanks for the kind words :) I do have to say though — unfortunately, it is NOT always the end customer who decides how much fair trade coffee’s to be produced. Meaning that many customers who feel a kinship with fair trade principles can often get either confused or swayed by Starbucks’ other marketing tactics — i.e. their CAFE practices.

   I do agree with you though, in the sense that we customers can and should take more initiative to find out exactly where our money’s going, and refused to give our moolah to those companies that don’t measure up. I just hope that we’ll be able to at the very least preserve the consumer options (i.e. indie coffee shops) we still have –

   Comment by Siel — August 12, 2006 @ 10:01 pm

6. 

   okokok, I do have a veryyyyy interesting/intriguing/full of question marks story to share about my encounter with the fair trade coffee practices at one of my local Starbucks;

   first, the venue: Starbucks-owned store on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro, NC (a typical conservative market by the way)

   I went there together with a friend of mine; stepped in & asked for a CUP of fair trade coffee; I guess I was lucky enough to be “intercepted” by what looked to be the manager of the store (nice lady with a bit of a German accent – interesting); she replied quuite naturally, unsurprised, “yes, sure” and asked me what size I would like; I said “regular”…

   after that a little bit of a whispering/elbowing/”the look” giving went on between the manager and the other baristas on site; my request must have certainly sounded kinda weird (or they knew about the “Challenge”?);

   finally, the cashier wants to ring in my order, but she doesn’t know which button to press and asks the manager; the manager says “press Others”….and…..surprise, surprise: the register displays $3.58 for my REGULAR fair trade coffee!!

   this is when it gets really interesting now: in the meantime my friend was looking for a coffee as well, and finally, he makes his choice; I ask the cashier for the 2nd coffee (a medium frappucino priced at cca $3.50) anddddddddddddd….oulalaaa! she charges me only $3.58 for both coffees!

   I ask her if the price is ok, and she gives me a little troubled look, turned her head around to make sure the manager was not near or smth (at least that was my impression), and whispers hastily “yess, yess, it’s fine”; I have to add I’m not a regular customer of that store, I haven’t been there in 6 months or even more

   then, when my coffee arrives (after beeing french pressed, obviously), I get another surprise…I’m given the whole pot-quantity!! I tell the guy that I only ordered a regular cup, but he responds that that’s how much coffee I get because that’s what the french press produces; I laughed and left

   I really dunno what to think about the whole thing…is it the cashier incompetence who didn’t know how to ring the order? is it the register that didn’t have an option for ONE CUP of fair trade coffee? is it the misscommunication between the manager and her employees, as apparently she understood I was looking for a regular cup of coffee, but the other 2 (the cashier and the dude) didn’t? why did the cashier give me a free coffee, was it her personal decision because she felt bad for charging me so much for fair trade?? OR is it my irrestible look (yeah right, haha) that made her like me so much so as to give me an extra frappucino for free??

   I admit I’m a little puzzled…what do you think???

   Comment by follower — August 14, 2006 @ 7:28 am

7. 

   Dude — Thanks for trying! I think the FAQ will answer a lotta your Qs — basically, baristas are only supposed to charge for the size ordered, but many baristas have NOT been made aware of this policy. Meaning baristas may be well-meaning and nice, but still not have been trained to know the official Starbucks procedure — which is no fault of their own (albeit frustrating for customers). In any case, glad you got your coffee — for free!

   Comment by Siel — August 14, 2006 @ 8:03 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post.

name

e-mail

website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail