These are two of our regular baristas and we like them. It took awhile for the boy to grow on us but he has, now that he’s not too shy to talk to us. I think we have almost talked him into blogging so stay tuned for that… 😉
But the point of this post isn’t to talk about our favorite baristas (or least favorite) I’ve got two other things to ramble about and both involve money. But hey, anytime you talk about Starbucks money is in the back of your mind isn’t it?
As you may know, TW and I stop at Starbucks every morning for Quad Venti Caramel Macchiatos and unfortunately they’re skim too but I try to forget that as often as possible. (For you non-Starbucks people, quad means 4 shots of espresso. Venti is the largest size, it’s 24oz and I’m not going to explain Starbucks’ version of the macchiato because if you don’t know then you’re living on Mars and there are no Starbucks on Mars at this time and I don’t really like to torture anyone except his highness, J.)
I love my morning visit to Starbucks. I love my baristas. I love the fact that they know exactly what I want before I order and I love making new baristas nervous by reminding them that when you make a CM you do not pour the shot straight into the freaking cup. It’s fun. I enjoy seeing the others who are as addicted as I am. I love seeing the unusual people who wander in and puzzle over the menu. The troubling part of this school year, which starts on Monday, is trying to figure out how we’re going to be able to go to Starbucks without having to buy little kids coffee or hot chocolate every morning and drag them in with us and stuff.
Part of me was thinking we’d just skip Starbucks on the mornings that we had the kids. It would be a good way to save some money, right? But then the Hello Dollar! dude had to go and make me growly by reminding me how much money we spend there every year. I’m feeling like some teen kid whose mom has just explained why something is not a good idea, I just want to do it even MORE now.
Who cares if I take that $55 a week and put it in the bank and it turns into $3,019.26 (with interest)? I NEED MY STARBUCKS before work more than I need $3,019.26 a year right? Who cares if I’ve been seriously stressing over our debt for a year, if we don’t spend that on Starbucks we won’t save it, we’ll spend it on something else, won’t we?
Yes, we have a nice Starbucks coffee pot. I brew Gazebo in it everyday. We’ve got a nice Starbucks espresso machine too but we never use it. It takes too much work and it is not nearly as much fun as teasing college kids wearing their crummy Starbucks hats and cute little aprons. There’s no community standing around the espresso machine in my kitchen, ya know?
Life is hard.
And now that I’ve actually said life is hard and all I’m doing is thinking about how I might not get my Quad Venti Caramel Macchiato a few days a month I’m feeling like a hypocrite because there are kids in this world who don’t have clean water.
Starbucks is working on that problem by donating 10 million over five years from the sale of ethos water sold in their stores. (I’m buying a bottle tomorrow, I swear!!!)
Jay Winston over on the Huff Po blog doesn’t think this is good enough. (Has he pledged to donate $10 million of his earnings in over 5 years to the clean water cause??? Has he pledged any?) He seems to think that Starbucks would do better to encourage its customers to buy coupons for a dollar or five dollars to donate to the cause. He seems to think this would raise more than five million. I think he’s wrong. This may not be the BEST campaign but it’s better than some dumb “buy a ticket” campaign
I hate it when people ask me if I want to contribute a dollar to this cause or that at the grocery store or at Shoney’s or like they did today at Petsmart. I just don’t contribute to causes that way. And I don’t think the majority of Starbucks customers in this college town do either. Tomorrow when I head into my Starbucks I’m going to ask the baristas what they think but I bet they’d hate having to push tickets on people. Heck, they hate having to ask people if they’d like a pastry with their drink.
starbucks, coffee, money, charity
