With 164 challenges taken and 145 blogs participating, The Starbucks Challenge has officially hit more than half the US states — We’re now at 26 plus Washington DC! (Welcome, Idaho and Ohio! Still waiting on Alabama and Utah…) We’ve also added Austria: 12 countries total!
Fun Starbucks stuff I discovered on the web for your amusement:
The Space Hijackers’ Starbucks site details a hilarious Starbucks fight (pic right) in Leicester Square, UK.
Closer to home, the LA Weekly report on a Rev. Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping event at the Hollywood and Highland Starbucks is spectacular. Evidently, Billy’s caused enough havoc that Starbucks distributed a memo to all its franchises titled, “What should I do if Reverend Billy is in my store?�? The H&H Starbucks certainly knew what to do — Perhaps Starbucks might send out a similar memo about the fair trade French press issue before challengers are forced to resort to Rev. Billy-esque tactics?
In other news, Cindy of Starbucks dropped by the blogosphere yesterday to comment here and here. The followup comments by Sean and jeni of on au··to·pi·lot are especially interesting — Check them out!
And my friend Jen reports (see comments) that Starbucks will be making snow for Angelenos this winter. Which reminded me about Starbucks’ use of prison labor to wrap its holiday offerings, reported by Seattle Weekly in 2002. I called the main Starbucks number today to see if this practice was taking place. Kelly (sp?), the Starbucks phone rep who took my call, put me on hold to get more info, then came back on to let me know that Starbucks “doesn’t do it any longer.” Apparently, Starbucks quit doing mail orders a few years back, which is what the prison laborers were wrapping up.
From L.A. Weekly:
Starbucks, predictably, has fought back, not just with the criminal charges that landed Talen in Twin Towers, but with an April court order that forbids him to come within 750 feet of any Starbucks franchise in California.
Mmm… How’re we supposed to do the challenge with that albatross, Siel?:-)
Comment by Fletch — November 9, 2005 @ 8:59 pm
Yeah — that 750 feet rule would pretty much rule out living in NYC… And most of LA too, but we’re more spread out (sprawled).
C’mon — You’ve always wanted to be arrested for civil disobedience ;)
Unrelatedly — I’ve been reading Owen’s Musings recently — lots of globalization related stuff — and enjoying it :) Is it in your bloglines?
Comment by Siel — November 9, 2005 @ 9:08 pm
why Starbucks?
why not Microsoft?
Comment by gwadzilla — November 13, 2005 @ 5:39 pm
Microsoft does not make coffee.
Comment by Siel — November 13, 2005 @ 8:41 pm