RE: Review - Ditching Starbucks for a true American coffee company
Thanks so much for the recommendation! Organic food is very important to me, so I will definitely be looking at the site to see what they have.
As far as Howard Schultz goes, I didn't hear it from a "bad source" unless you consider his mouth as such? I listened to exactly what he said, as well as what the two individuals said about being kicked out in the recent controversy.
The two men kicked out of the store admitted they walked in with water bottles (not purchased at the store) and sat down. One of them asked to use the restroom and an employee stated it was for paying customers. I don't know of any place that serves food that would allow someone to not only sit down without purchasing anything, but also bring in food or drink that wasn't purchased at the place they are occupying space. From a customer service perspective, that is disrespectful to paying customers if they need a seat and there are people sitting at tables not eating or drinking purchased items (i.e: not actual customers, "potential" customers at best). I have been at Starbucks when it was too busy to find seating and I'm aware of how busy they get.
This is what I heard Howard Schultz say as a response stemming from the incident. Summarized: he did not find nonpaying individuals occupying tables that paying customers could use to be "inappropriate," but he did find it "inappropriate" for mentally ill or homeless people. I don't understand why he would welcome nonpaying customers to go fill the seats at their local Starbucks and dismiss the importance of paying customers. I don't know why he would then feel the need to isolate certain individuals as unworthy of occupying tables. If I walked into a Burger King with a water bottle not purchased there and sat down I would expect to be asked to leave. This is common sense and courtesy to both the establishment and the paying customers. Howard Schultz is supportive of entitled attitudes over paying customers and all I have to say to him is good luck with that. See how valued his customers will feel when the store becomes full of nonpaying squatters, pushing the real customers out of the store.
Thanks again for the recommendation, very eager to see what else is out there in the coffee realm!
ok, from the video, he's got like 5 seconds to answer the question, and he can't really say words like poop or smelly or wearing rags or carrying knapsacks with giant bags of cans for recycling. But that's what he means, despite using "Ugly American" verbiage. He's being general. Quite sure if you asked him the same question while at his dinner table, he's not going to tell you he has a problem with the mentally ill. He's also using "homeless" as a euphemism for rattily-dressed people with hygiene issues. totally get it that speaking this way in generalities isn't perfect speech, but who has time on the spot to be that precise, it's asking a lot. Also, he's been dealing with these problems every day of his life, whereas most of us don't deal with it at all, we don't have to talk to the homeless or mentally ill, or help them, or do anything with them but walk away.
All we're saying is, let's not lambaste people bc they didn't speak perfectly to everyone's liking. Imagine if everything you said was micro-analyzed for improper etiquette, hurt feelings, or biases. totally respect the right to live homeless, hell, we wish the world would go back to roaming hordes with no property lines and freely roaming buffalo, then the homeless might seem brilliant by comparison (and some are). But Starbucks is part of the "matrix", and if you're gonna hang out in the matrix, you have to be "matrixy" or risk getting thrown back over the wall in Brave New World. If you wanna eat at a Michelin 3 star restaurant, don't show up looking like Al Bundy and expect the chef to not throw you out. It's their right as proprietors to select who they want. This works both ways, we also don't support the government telling a bar owner that he can't allow smoking in his barroom. If you don't like smoking, then don't go to that bar, find one that shares your values.
Another perfect example, is American will call ALL Latinos and ALL South Americans and ALL Spaniards "mexicans". This isn't right, and it's even insulting. But just like you might respect wild animals and not shoot them because they ate some of your azaleas, let's not shoot the CEOs for having an "Ugly American" moment. Now if you get him backing up his supposed hatred of vagrants and the mentally ill, feel free to rip into him. But let's all make sure we're getting our facts right, and not just showily jumping on everything that doesn't SOUND perfectly.
Let's give each other some leeway. Feel free to post the video where Schultz backs up that he hates the mentally ill, and we'll get off the soapbox. Frankly, the TV anchorwoman didn't catch it, bc she understood what he was saying in the spirit of what he was saying. Either that, or she's an anti-mental-health anti-homeless racist herself.