Posted on 09/17/2013 5:45:47 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
You got that right.
Respect My Authority:
Stop, Drop, and Cower
[Direct Link]
My brother owns stock in Starbucks, he drug me in there once to buy me a cup of their coffee. First problem I had ordering is that their servers apparently don’t know what an ordinary cup of black coffee is, they keep wanting to put weird sh#t in it that only belongs in an ice cream sundae.
It seems they never heard of just “Hot Black and Strong”.
The day I spend 6 or 7 dollars on a crappy ass’d, mass produced muffin and another 5 or 6 dollars for a cup of really nasty coffee (tasted like it had been burning for 3 days)will be a cold day in hell.
Never been into one of their ripoff stores again.
I guess it’s not safe there anymore.
I read the whole policy statement, and I believe there is no good option for them. Clearly, they tried to adhere to the Constitution in welcoming CCW into their stores.
At this point, they are right - both sides are squeezing them in a way there is no winning.
Now their policy is to indicate that CCW isn’t welcome, but if you come into a store and order coffee, nobody is going to trouble you about it.
The fact is, I’d rather not have to carry a gun for my own protection, but times have changed. I don’t welcome carrying a gun either, but I do.
I sympathize with Starbucks. I’m not a fan of their stuff, and I really had a hard time with their platitudes printed on their cups a few years ago. They stopped doing that.
It’s pretty clear they realize that drinking coffee is a bipartisan custom. Everything, everything we do today has become politicized. Both political parties are to blame for that - they have taken too many liberties with the founder’s original documents, and the SCOTUS allowed it all to stand.
If I need coffee, and there’s a Starbucks nearby, this policy isn’t going to keep me from spending my money there.
My two cents.
GEEZ; I must really be getting old, I thought that the Sandy Hook murders took place at a school, not a Starbucks.
Prime targets sipping coffee. It’s ok, the police will investigate after the fact.
Yea, that happens every day. Good grief.
No thanks. Keep it to yourself. It’s their policy. Respect it or go elsewhere. I’m certain you will.
To their credit, they’re trying to keep out of this political mess and just sell coffee.
I still see that nobody has posted a story of an armed citizen who OC’s getting jumped.
I stopped patronizing Starbucks when they were printing pro-gay blurbs on their cups — maybe 5+ years ago.
“The presence of a weapon in our stores is unsettling and upsetting for many of our customers. “
Fifty years ago the customers said the same thing about blacks.
Posted by Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive officer
Dear Fellow Americans,
Few topics in America generate a more polarized and emotional debate than guns. In recent months, Starbucks stores and our partners (employees) who work in our stores have been thrust unwillingly into the middle of this debate. That’s why I am writing today with a respectful request that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas.
From the beginning, our vision at Starbucks has been to create a “third place” between home and work where people can come together to enjoy the peace and pleasure of coffee and community. Our values have always centered on building community rather than dividing people, and our stores exist to give every customer a safe and comfortable respite from the concerns of daily life.
We appreciate that there is a highly sensitive balance of rights and responsibilities surrounding America’s gun laws, and we recognize the deep passion for and against the “open carry” laws adopted by many states. (In the United States, “open carry” is the term used for openly carrying a firearm in public.) For years we have listened carefully to input from our customers, partners, community leaders and voices on both sides of this complicated, highly charged issue.
Our company’s longstanding approach to “open carry” has been to follow local laws: we permit it in states where allowed and we prohibit it in states where these laws don’t exist. We have chosen this approach because we believe our store partners should not be put in the uncomfortable position of requiring customers to disarm or leave our stores. We believe that gun policy should be addressed by government and law enforcement—not by Starbucks and our store partners.
Recently, however, we’ve seen the “open carry” debate become increasingly uncivil and, in some cases, even threatening. Pro-gun activists have used our stores as a political stage for media events misleadingly called “Starbucks Appreciation Days” that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of “open carry.” To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores. Some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners.
For these reasons, today we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas—even in states where “open carry” is permitted—unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel.
I would like to clarify two points. First, this is a request and not an outright ban. Why? Because we want to give responsible gun owners the chance to respect our request—and also because enforcing a ban would potentially require our partners to confront armed customers, and that is not a role I am comfortable asking Starbucks partners to take on. Second, we know we cannot satisfy everyone. For those who oppose “open carry,” we believe the legislative and policy-making process is the proper arena for this debate, not our stores. For those who champion “open carry,” please respect that Starbucks stores are places where everyone should feel relaxed and comfortable. The presence of a weapon in our stores is unsettling and upsetting for many of our customers.
I am proud of our country and our heritage of civil discourse and debate. It is in this spirit that we make today’s request. Whatever your view, I encourage you to be responsible and respectful of each other as citizens and neighbors.
Sincerely,
Howard Schultz
http://www.starbucks.com/blog/an-open-letter-from-howard-schultz/1268
This is the most sensible comment I have seen on this thread. Like many companies, Starbucks is trying to walk down the middle of the road with doublespeak and apparently, it does not satisfy either side.
They would have come out much better if they simply said “we comply with local laws and respect every communities right to determine what those laws should be regarding firearms” which basically, was their policy. Instead, it appears they got some weasel word lawyer involved rather than stand for their own rights as a property owner. They could have been heroes defending self-determination instead of cowards defending nothing.
Anyway, thanks for the sanity of what you wrote. There were other sane comments, but yours was most direct.
Excellent summation.
I am done with them....and I have their Gold Card.
Contact Starbucks here using Social Responsibility option....as of now, the servers appear to be overloaded:
http://customerservice.starbucks.com/app/contact/ask_company_info/
Run a retail company and get back to me.
If you ran Starbucks, what would you do?
All you want to do is sell coffee. The policy is we don’t want guns in the store, but if you walk in with one nobody is going to say anything about it, and we’ll still serve you coffee. Moreover, if some masshole walks up and makes a beef about it, we STILL aren’t going to do anything about it.
Sorry, but this is the best anyone is going to do until the 20 somethings realize they are going to be slaves to the US national health service, and decide its BS. When they start caring, the needle will move.
Adams said once you lose freedoms, they don’t come back. He was right, and now it will take something beyond the ballot box to fix it. Both parties are doing this. Both of them, which means you have no representation in government, and they are counting on the fact that you won’t risk imprisonment to do anything about it.
Wear your CCW, and buy your coffee. Or don’t. The more gun owners there are in America, the harder it will be for the statists.
Everyone talks about sacking Obama. Wrong. Sack Boehner and the entire GOP-e. Go after their businesses and their assets. They were hired to oppose this crap and in fact helped bring it in.
As for McCain, his POW credit card has been declined. As far as I’m concerned he’s a traitor.
Here's one from FR's archive. Took me about a minute to find:
FR archive -- Richmond Times-Dispatch 'Teen homicide suspects have criminal histories'
Thanks for the link. I do appreciate it, though I will still OC, as this type of thing is extremely rare.
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