Sunday, December 16, 2007

What do we think about Starbucks?


I must admit, I am reeeeally behind on this story, but since it is still within the pulse of our times, I feel obligated to 'blog' about it. I just had a friend, who is a former Marine, share with me that he doesn't go to Starbucks because they don't support the war on terror or the troops. This story has been bouncing around for a couple of years, I guess, in that a Marine wrote to the Starbucks corporation asking them to send some coffee to some troops serving in the Middle East. Allegedly, Starbucks sent an email reply that told the Marine that 'Starbucks didn't support the War on Terror, or anyone having anything to do with it'. I have done a little research and Starbucks defends themselves by saying #1 that they did not reply in this language but that they do not give to religious groups or political organizations, choosing to focus their resources in their local communities, and therefore would have denied the request from this Marine based on this corporate policy.
True to a big corporation, Starbucks goes on to take credit for the good that its employees do on their own, by saying that many of Starbuck's employees donate their free pound of coffee to shipments that do indeed go to soldiers overseas. There is also a retraction from the original Marine Sergeant that posted this story saying that he didn't do proper research in the beginning to find out if Starbucks had actually sent this email.
What do you think? Does anyone have any first hand info as to whether or not Starbucks is anti-military or just guilty of bad business etiquette?

1 comment:

Chris said...

Hey Feltzy!

One of the sites I go to check out these kinds of stories or accusations is www.snopes.com.

Below is the link to this account. It seems to be false, but read for yourself.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/starbucks.asp

Have a Merry Christmas!