STARSMOKES

Teens: Smoke 'em if....

2009-08-05T07:13:00.000-04:00

The NYT shows a series of ads that once told the great health care benefits of the devil weed.

I have received from a regional Starbucks manager a very nice note thanking me for my letter along with a pound of Rwandan coffee and a $25.00 gift card. Someone at SBUX must have read I could be bought off with a breakfast sandwich. (Still no sandwich.)

My goal with this effort is certainly to get SBUX to stop allowing smoking outside their stores. Thus far the response from SBUX, to my efforts, has been to ask me to contact my local government and lobby to have them pass laws that will ban smoking up to 20 feet or so from outside any establishment. Of course Im not sure why we need the government when SBUX is perfectly able themselves to remove the smoking.

I am not a zealot against smokers. It is a very difficult habit to brake and it is still legal. In fact the government wants us to smoke. Here in CT the governor has raised taxes on blow rods to close the budget gap. Sooooo...logic falls that we need MORE smokers to help with our budgetary problems.

I remain perplexed why I have yet to receive from SBUX the reasoning on why they allow smoking, all the while SBUX is in a strategic marketing campaign with the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Not to mention an explanation from the Komen Foundation themselves as to why they would not require SBUX to ban smoking?

It is well known that teenage girls are a large customer base for SBUX. It has also been reported that teen age girls who smoke are at a greater risk of breast cancer. So why with both SBUX and Komen, who market the pink ribbon campaign and local cancer fundraising efforts, not take it upon themselves to stop smoking at SBUX makes little sense.

Or, at least, tell us their logic behind this strange inconsistency of being against smoking before they were/ are for it.

Gaining Momentum

2009-07-26T20:57:00.000-04:00

Our blog has been picked up by Starbucks Gossip. Interesting comments from across the web. Some supportive some critical.

I do want to be clear. My frustration with SBUX is more to do with the fact that they---not unlike many other "socially conscious" companies and organizations---portend to be the antithesis of the cold unfeeling mean "CORPORATION" like oh Philip Morris. My letter to them praised SBUX branding success and stated that I do go to Starbucks and am not calling for a boycott or anything so "drama filled".

However, their response to me via form letter from a person with no last name or title is simply not in keeping with SBUX declared mission statement on customers:

Our Customers
When we are fully engaged, we connect with, laugh with, and uplift the lives of our customers— even if just for a few moments. Sure, it starts with the promise of a perfectly made beverage, but our work goes far beyond that. It’s really about human connection.

Human connection? Not so much.

Some comments on the SBUX Gossip site indicate, which is easy to do, that I am a anti smoking zealot. I am not. I am opposed to raising taxes on blow rods and any from of "devil weed". Smoking is legal and smokers are not criminals. They have a choice.I don't like walking through smoke going in or coming out of a store. If Dunkin' Donuts banned smoking at their stores I think SBUX can do the same inside and out. I'd just like to hear SBUX corporate explain their support of smoking with their mission statement.

In addition, for SBUX to facilitate smoking while they strategically market with the Susan G. Komen Foundation---lots of Mommies in those stores---to fight breast cancer seems hard to reconcile. To date I haven't received even a form letter from Susan.

We shall see where this goes. In the end I just get a little tired of these companies who act as though what they are doing is altruistic and that the almighty dollar is not at the bottom of everything they do. I'm all for making the money. Lets just be honest about why SBUXs partners with the Susan G. Komen Foundation and not the Floyd G. Smutz Cure for Prostate Health. If it helps raise awareness about breast cancer fine. But, it had better raise our sales numbers or it ain't worth it. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.

Kenny G or Daniel M.?

2009-07-14T14:01:00.000-04:00

Well I got a one page form letter from mother ship that is SBUX HQ. If you prefer to not read the response to my letter just know the letter was signed "Daniel M" aka "Kenny G". No title, no last name no nothin'. Not a very "progressive socially conscious" outfit after all. I can get more info on Dick Cheney's hunting trips.

Since SBUX HQ has decided to push me aside without so much as a free breakfast sandwich, well---get cha popcorn ready---IT'S ON!

This blog, and my reasonable attitude toward SBUX regarding the banning of smoking, will be replaced by a full court press. We will have smoking banned outside all SBUX locales.

My advice to SBUX HQ is to stock up for one big pain in the ass....Ring of Fire Indeed..