We had an email yesterday from an MNB reader who had some complaints about a Starbucks experience that did not live up to the brand promise.
Another MNB reader responded:
It's fashionable to hate on Starbuck's these days. I still remember when coffee was almost uniformly terrible - Starbuck's was the first chain to popularize the idea, nationally, that coffee should actually taste good. (The local exception in my youth was George Howell's Coffee Connection...acquired by Starbuck's.) So I think I know what Jim Swoboda must have been feeling when I woke up early to visit the Starbuck's Reserve in my Washington DC hotel lobby. And it was...underwhelming. Asking the staff behind the counter what made it a Reserve, their answer that, "Sometimes we get new coffees to try, and we have a Clover," didn't get me excited. And they were consistently out of the nitro cold-brew. When your flagship store is no better than the location down the street you should be worried.
Agreed.
Of course, complaining about the coffee at Starbucks doesn’t seem all that big a deal compared to the two African-American gentlemen at a Philadelphia Starbucks who appear to have been arrested for waiting-while-black. (The police were responding to a call from store staff - the fault seems to entirely rest with the employees, not the authorities.)
We had the story yesterday, promoting one MNB reader to respond:
Suggests racial bias??? It was clearly racial discrimination!
Starbucks should give these people free coffee for life along with a public apology, in my opinion.
That may be the least of what they get.
Another MNB reader responded:
It's fashionable to hate on Starbuck's these days. I still remember when coffee was almost uniformly terrible - Starbuck's was the first chain to popularize the idea, nationally, that coffee should actually taste good. (The local exception in my youth was George Howell's Coffee Connection...acquired by Starbuck's.) So I think I know what Jim Swoboda must have been feeling when I woke up early to visit the Starbuck's Reserve in my Washington DC hotel lobby. And it was...underwhelming. Asking the staff behind the counter what made it a Reserve, their answer that, "Sometimes we get new coffees to try, and we have a Clover," didn't get me excited. And they were consistently out of the nitro cold-brew. When your flagship store is no better than the location down the street you should be worried.
Agreed.
Of course, complaining about the coffee at Starbucks doesn’t seem all that big a deal compared to the two African-American gentlemen at a Philadelphia Starbucks who appear to have been arrested for waiting-while-black. (The police were responding to a call from store staff - the fault seems to entirely rest with the employees, not the authorities.)
We had the story yesterday, promoting one MNB reader to respond:
Suggests racial bias??? It was clearly racial discrimination!
Starbucks should give these people free coffee for life along with a public apology, in my opinion.
That may be the least of what they get.
- KC's View:
