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War on Christmas: Starbucks Red Cups Are Emblematic of the Christian Culture Cleansing of the West

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Now of course, I have no cause to go to Starbucks, although I can happily admit to shoving a Royale with Cheese into my gob after a particularly frivolous night out.

But I did go this morning, after seeing a Facebook post by a colleague of mine pointing out what Starbucks’ newest “Red Cup” looks like. For those unfamiliar: one of Starbucks’ greatest marketing gimmicks is changing the colour of their cups from white to red every Christmas. I myself remember excitedly declaring to an ex-girlfriend how red cups heralded the beginning of Christmas (sorry, Peter Hitchens) . . .

And what I found was deeply disappointing to 17-year-old, macchiato-chugging me. The Red Cups (do I need a trademark symbol after that?) are now an anti-Christmas symbol, with Starbucks declaring their formerly Christmassy cups to be “holiday beverages” and shedding any sign of Christmas from them . . .

I asked Starbucks why, but they just sent me a “factsheet” with their latest flavours and a link to their website where they’ve talked about wanting “to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories” . . .

You can see what’s going on here. More open? You mean, you’re trying not to “offend” anyone. (Read more from “War on Christmas: Starbucks Red Cups Are Emblematic of the Christian Culture Cleansing of the West” HERE)

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Post Alleging Center City Starbucks Refused to Let Police Sergeant Use Restroom Goes Viral

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24905278_BG1A downtown Philadelphia Starbucks is at the center of controversy this weekend after a Facebook post alleging that an employee of the coffee shop refused to allow a uniformed Philadelphia Police sergeant use the restroom went viral.

The post, which does not identify the sergeant involved, says he walked into the Starbucks at 13th and Chestnut streets and asked to use the restroom, for which a key code is required. The employee, according to the post, “State[d] in a loud voice … that the bathroom is for paying customers only.” The post goes on to say that the sergeant asked politely to use the restroom anyway, and that the Starbucks employee declined to grant access.

Officer Joe Leighthardt, who knows the sergeant, was the first to share his fellow officer’s post about the incident, which happened Thursday or Friday of last week. Leighthardt said he personally has been to that Starbucks location several times on calls for service, but never as a customer.

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“I didn’t intend for it to go viral,” Leighthardt said, adding that most people who have responded to the post have been supportive.

In reply to Leighthardt’s post on Starbucks’ official Facebook page, Starbucks wrote in part, “We are aware of this situation, and it is certainly not in line with the experience we want any of our customers to have in our stores. We are taking all necessary steps to ensure this doesn’t happen in the future.” (Read more from “Post Alleging Center City Starbucks Refused to Let Police Sergeant Use Restroom Goes Viral” HERE)

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Starbucks-Owned Ethos Water Bottling in Drought-Stricken California [+video]

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Photo Credit: Daily News

Photo Credit: Daily News

Ethos, the Starbucks-owned water company founded on the principle of helping others, is bottling water in the heart of drought-ravaged California.

At least some of Ethos Water’s supply comes from a plant in Merced, a Northern California city currently experiencing “exceptional drought,” according to a new report by Mother Jones.

Ethos Water was founded in 2002 with a promise to donate to charities working to improve worldwide access to clean water. Starbucks bought the company three years later, and since 2005, the coffee giant has donated 5 cents for every bottle sold to the Ethos Water Fund . . .

Starbucks uses the Merced plant — which processes water collected from private springs in Baxter, about 160 miles north — to supply its West Coast stores, according to Mother Jones. A Pennsylvania water source provides bottles for the East Coast.

Both Merced and Baxter are under an “exceptional drought,” the U.S. Drought Monitor reported. Much of California has been ravaged by the dry spell, which has prompted the state to crack down on water-wasters, impose restrictions across the state and pass appliance efficacy mandates. (Read more from “Starbucks’ Ethos Water Bottling in Drought-Stricken California” HERE)

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Map of Where Starbucks Chose to #RaceTogether in New York Paints a Strikingly Revealing Picture

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BucksStarbucks’ #RaceTogether campaign has been met with strong reactions from across the political spectrum.

The response on social media to the company’s push for an “uncomfortable conversation” about race became so intense that a senior executive of the company even went so far as to delete his Twitter account as a response, according to CNN Money (he eventually reinstated it 24 hours later).

With much discussion brought to the campaign and its hashtag – if not the underlying issues of race in America – a closer look at which neighborhoods Starbucks has opened up shop in may reveal a potential disconnect between the $16.4 billion corporation’s social goals and its 14,000 stores.

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For example, the map below shows the northern suburbs of New York City – Rockland and Westchester Counties – with the red dots representing the 36 locations that Starbucks has in the area, and the neighborhoods coded by the racial plurality that lives there.

Not a single Starbucks location is situated in a neighborhood with a plurality black population, despite these areas being more geographically dense. (Read more from “Map of Where Starbucks Chooses to #RaceTogether in New York Paints a Strikingly Revealing Picture” HERE)

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Starbucks Ends ‘Race Together’ Coffee Cup Campaign, but Now Announces it will Open Shops in Slums

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lady with cupStarbucks went from pulling the shots on its controversial “Race Together” campaign to pulling the plug on it after only a week.

Coffee mogul Howard Schultz announced the global corporation’s plan to take its baristas out of the race and diversity campaign that included writing “Race Together” on cups, a decision that was apparently part of its plan from the beginning, a memo stated.

Baristas will no longer be writing “Race Together” on cups starting Sunday.
The bold initiative involved slapping stickers on coffee cups, but it drew criticism for being opportunistic in the wake of Ferguson and even inappropriate for a barista to task such a conversation while making coffee.

“While there has been criticism of the initiative — and I know this hasn’t been easy for any of you — let me assure you that we didn’t expect universal praise,” CEO Schultz stated. “We leaned in because we believed that starting this dialogue is what matters most.”

The company has no intention of stopping its initiative, as it announced forums to come and the hiring of 10,000 employees from diverse backgrounds to man new coffee shops in disadvantaged urban communities. (Read more from “Starbucks Ends ‘Race Together’ Coffee Cup Campaign” HERE)

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Starbucks Stands Behind Race Together Campaign Despite Backlash

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Starbucks is sticking with an initiative it launched on Monday aimed at sparking discussion about race relations in America even though the effort is being widely criticized in the media and on social networks.

The backlash even caused the brand’s comms leader to quit Twitter early Tuesday.

Starbucks created the campaign “to stimulate conversation, compassion, and action around race in America with the goal of encouraging greater understanding and empathy,” according to an email from Corey duBrowa, SVP of global communications and international public affairs.

Though seemingly well-intentioned, Starbucks bit off more than it could chew with the Race Together initiative, according to some critics in the media, who questioned whether the chain’s employees are qualified or patient enough to have such a sensitive conversation with customers. Others have commented that Starbucks could be trying to capitalize on racial tension in the US.

Despite opposition to the effort, duBrowa, who shut down his Twitter account on Tuesday after being flooded with negative comments, said the brand knew the campaign would be challenging. (Read more from “Starbucks Stands Behind Race Together Campaign Despite Backlash” HERE)

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Starbucks’ Push to Make Baristas Talk About Race is a Disaster Waiting to Happen

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By Jenée Desmond-Harris. Starbucks has launched an initiative to encourage its employees and customers to have conversations about race.

CEO Howard Schultz has given baristas at 12,000 Starbucks locations the option to write the words “Race Together” on customers’ cups and begin discussions about race relations.

The initiative is a partnership with USA Today. Full-page ads in the New York Times and USA Today this week have advertisements supporting the Race Together initiative, and USA Today will include an insert with materials on race designed to spark the desired discussions and a hashtag — #RaceTogether — to publicly share results. According to Starbucks, the plan will be further detailed during Starbucks’ 2015 annual shareholders meeting in Seattle on Wednesday.

According to Starbucks, the Race Together initiative is an outgrowth of the discussion forums the company held in response to the outcry over racially biased policing after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner’s in Staten Island, New York.

It appears to be a reflection of Schultz’s sincere distress over the pain and hostility that often underlies national headlines and controversies related to race and racism. While there is no shortage of tweets making light of the potential pitfalls of the effort, it would be unfair not to note that Race Together is probably an honest attempt on his part to make America better. (Read more from “Starbucks’ Push to Make Baristas Talk About Race Sounds Like It Could Be Disastrous” HERE)

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Starbucks Strikes Up Hot Debate with Two Words They are Serving Up on Their Coffee Cups

By Kyle Becker. Starbucks has hit the next stage of business activism by encouraging baristas to strike up a conversation about race.


How are they going about broaching this delicate subject? By writing “race together” on their coffee cups.

Racial matters are certainly part of a national conversation that Americans should be having with one another.

The issue lies in this case whether or not it’s appropriate for a business to drop a charged conversation about race on customers without being solicited to do so. People go to Starbucks presumably for the coffee – not to be accosted with political issues. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Starbucks' First LGBT Ad Features Drag Queens

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Photo Credit: AP / Alik Keplicz

Photo Credit: AP / Alik Keplicz

Starbucks is putting its support for the gay lifestyle into its marketing campaign with the release of an ad featuring drag queens.

“Well, here’s one place we certainly didn’t think we’d see the ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race Girls’ pop up,” James Nichols wrote in an article for the Huffington Post’s Gay Voices section.

The ad features two men dressed as women who were featured in Season Six of the television series “Drag Race,” Adore Delano and Bianca Del Rio.

The “girls” in the video are fighting in line over who gets served first, but in the end the Starbucks server gives them both their order at the same time.

Read more from this story HERE.

Disabled US Veteran Denied Entry to Starbucks Over Service Dog

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Photo Credit: Fox News A disabled U.S. Army veteran says he was told he could not enter a Texas Starbucks because of his service dog.

Yancy Baer traveled to Houston from San Antonio on behalf of the national organization Canine Companions for Independence, which helped pair Baer with service dog Verbena after Baer’s left leg was amputated from the knee down due to bone cancer, KHOU reported.

The cancer was discovered after a non-combat injury Baer suffered while serving in Iraq in 2009.

Baer got Verbena about 14 weeks ago, and traveled to San Antonio to share his story on behalf of the nonprofit Canine Companions.

He tried to go into a Starbucks on Memorial Drive when he was stopped by a store employee.

Read more from this story HERE.

Con Man Thief Bites Starbucks Customer in the Face, Police Say

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Photo Credit: DNAinfo/Serena Solomon and NYPD

Photo Credit: DNAinfo/Serena Solomon and NYPD

A teenager pretending to gather signatures for a petition was arrested for swiping a passport and wallet from an East Village Starbucks customer — and then biting the victim in the face when confronted, police said.

Jamel Chandler, 18, approached a man in the Astor Place Starbucks at about 7 p.m. on Nov. 29 and asked him to sign a petition, according to police and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Chandler then placed a clipboard over the victim’s wallet, which contained a passport, credit cards and cash, to distract the victim and grab the wallet, police said.

When another customer spotted the theft and alerted the victim, the man confronted Chandler outside the store, where a scuffle between the two ended with Chandler biting the victim in the face, drawing blood, police said.

Chandler fled with the victim’s wallet, but left behind two iPhones, a hat and a shoe, according to the DA’s office.

By the time police arrested Chandler on Dec. 9, he had conned nine other people, police said.

Read more from this story HERE.