By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
Posted on 09/25/2001 8:02:00 AM PDT by toupsie
Starbucks dropped the ball in New York
Tuesday, September 25, 2001
By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
For Starbucks coffee mogul Howard Schultz, the terrorist attacks in New York City hit home.
Schultz was born in Brooklyn. He lived in or near the Big Apple for more than two decades. He has opened more than 130 Starbucks stores in Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs, each one serving up java -- along with the company's hallmark customer service.
So how then to explain what happened to the Midwood Ambulance Service, a company based near Schultz's old Brooklyn stomping grounds?
On Sept. 11, after the horrific collapse of the World Trade Center, workers for the ambulance company rushed to get bottled water for patients.
They went to a Starbucks store near "Ground Zero" and got, well, let's allow the ambulance company to spill the beans:
"A great deal of people were in shock from the devastation," a representative of the family-owned ambulance company wrote in an e-mail to Starbucks. "Shock victims are supposed to drink a lot of water. When employees of Midwood Ambulance went to the Starbucks down the street to get bottles of water for the victims they were treating, can you believe Starbucks actually charged them for it!!!"
Wait, there's more...
"These men, heroes for what they were doing, paid the $130 for three cases of bottled water out of their own pockets. Now, I would think that in a crisis such as this, vendors in the area would be more than happy to lend a little help by donating water. Well, not Starbucks! As if this country hasn't given you people enough money already!"
The e-mail continued:
"I love Frappuccinos as much as anyone, but any company that would try to make a profit off of a crisis like this doesn't deserve the American public's hard-earned money."
Now, let's give Starbucks the benefit of the doubt.
Let's pretend for a moment that employees at the store in Battery Park were not motivated by callousness when they charged medical personnel for water in a time of need.
Still, the store's unwillingness to donate water -- when many other people in New York and elsewhere freely gave supplies and labor -- came at the very same time when its corporate parent was all too willing to do something else: pat itself publicly on the back.
In a press release, the Seattle-based coffee company publicized how it had temporarily closed its North American locations "so that our partners could return to be home with their families and friends."
Gee, what Starbucks did for its "partners" -- that's Starbucks-ese for employees -- was nice, but certainly not something worthy of tooting its own horn about.
Given the context of national suffering, such publicity came across as self-serving and something else: tasteless.
If the mistreatment of the ambulance company resulted from one ill-guided employee at one Starbucks store, then the coffee giant, which fancies itself a good business neighbor, failed to do the right thing when the issue first reached the corporate level.
Starbucks could have made nice when a representative from the ambulance company called up to complain about the H{-2}0 imbroglio. But that didn't happen.
The ambulance company employee told Starbucks, "When I called...to inquire about this at your 'contact us' phone number from your Web site, I was told in a rather rude way that this could not have happened and abruptly thanked for my call and dismissed."
Starbucks had the chance to turn this unfortunate incident into something positive and, it appears, shrugged it off.
So the ambulance company eventually went to a higher level, writing a Dear Orin letter -- as in Starbucks President and CEO Orin Smith. That correspondence, dated Sept. 17, began: "Dear Orin, I have been a good customer of Starbucks for a number of years..."
It went on to explain what had happened and expressed how the ambulance company felt: "I am completely and utterly disappointed in you and your company and would sooner have open heart surgery without anesthesia before I would give you another red cent of my hard-earned money."
Neither Schultz, who is Starbucks chairman and chief global strategist, nor Smith could be reached. Audrey Lincoff, a company spokeswoman, confirmed that Starbucks had talked to Midwood Ambulance Service and had received its correspondences.
Finally, last week, Smith spoke to the head of the ambulance company and expressed "his deep concern" over the incident, the coffee company said.
Starbucks is now looking into how the faux pas occurred.
But the coffee company has made amends, swallowing its pride and doing something to make up for the case of customer disservice: It reimbursed the ambulance company in Brooklyn.
P-I columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. can be reached at 206-448-8125 or robertjamieson@seattlepi.com
The whole rise of espresso and similar very dark roasts in Italy and France was a result of the simple fact that the average citizen couldn't afford decent quality coffee beans. Low quality beans are lousy when medium roasted to the point where high quality beans have the greatest flavor and aroma.
I've had some *horrible* experiences at NY Starbucks. Love their coffee, but the service and management here is just atrocious.
Schultz should be ashamed.
Amen to that.
NeverGore
I will not patronize them again.
P.S. Make your own Biscotti, too. ;-)
During X42's reign a friend of mine and I would go to Starbucks so that we could loudly talk about the scandals. We knew we were on enemy territory and reveled in it.
Did you also know that they are a significant donor to Planned Parenthood?
Regards,
TS
Plain, black Maxwell House, thank you!
I live in NYC (bout a 1/2 mile from what was the WTC) and see Starbucks on every block (literally they stores across from stores), I will be walking by each and everyone of them from now on. Might be posting this article on their windows as well. This is absolutely disgusting.
Had I been an employee (partner) I would have given the water and belled the cat with a visit to the media had I been terminated.
Greed will always come back to haunt, even though it may be disguised as hardship.
Got a good biscotti recipe?
Phoo-ey on Starbucks. I always thought they were pretentious anyway. " An ounce of pretention is worth a pound of manure"
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