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Notes -
Has anyone had a Starbucks recently?
Back when I was in school the library had a Starbucks built into the entrance that was open 24/7 and always had a line out the door. It was like a license to print money. More than once in the middle of the night I would go with whichever girl was the flavor of the week when we were studying for whatever it might be, and I'd order something intentionally absurd for us both like a strawberry Frappuccino.
But mostly, I really, really try to avoid Starbucks. And today I was reminded why. I stopped by my local pastry shop not knowing they'd changed their hours and now don't open until 9, but fortunately it was like 8:53 when I showed up so I only had a few minutes to kill. On the radio, they mentioned that Starbucks was having some kind of nationwide protest about a rule-change, something to do with everyone having to wear plain black shirts or something to that effect. I thought, oh, there's a Starbucks a few hundred feet away in this parking lot. Why don't I, just for fun and for a bit of an anthropological survey, go and ask them about it for myself?
Holy shit it was bleak. The woman at the counter that greeted me was almost comically short and fat, like a cube. Her hair was greasy, thin, obviously unwashed, and would've benefited from a cut some months ago. She was curt, bordering on rude, asking what I wanted. When I told her I wasn't necessarily interested in ordering anything, but was very much interested in her thoughts on the 'strike' et al she gave me a stare that made a cow look intelligent. When she told me she didn't have anything to say about that, and would I like to order anything, I asked for a glass of water and if she'd mind if asked one of her colleagues instead. She directed me to the corporate number. She reitterated her lack of thought on the topic. She told me that Starbucks no longer offers 'free' water. She was totally, absolutely professional throughout the interaction other than the obvious current of 'fuck you' that permeated strongly.
What's the point of this post? I don't really know. My pastries from the actual coffee shop turned out to be great, everyone liked them. I haven't been giving Starbucks any money and will continue not to. I thought Starbucks was a shit-ass place full of soulless NPC's and I still do. Why did I go in there? What is the point of being curious when you already know what you're going to find? Welcome to Starbucks - we hate you and we're on strike because uniforms are oppression.
My guess is that due to whatever labour laws and corporate rules, they can do the shirt protest but can't talk about it with customers. She probably assumed you were some kind of spy from corporate trying to get her fired.
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