Starbucks and MY Troops!

Can you imagine the FEAR, the utter FEAR that ran through my blood when my friend, who happens to be 100% military, told me that Coffee Moguls at Starbucks were going to launch an anti-administration or anti-war campaign! I all but fell off my chair! NO, I screamed! I can't do this! That would mean giving up my addiction!

Luckily for me, an internet idiot is behind the rumor, and there is absolutely NO TRUTH to the rumor whatsoever. I spend on the average about $6.00 a day drinking coffee at Starbucks. I've often said out loud that it's cheaper than cocaine, has the same effect, but you don't have to deal with the police! It's an accurate statement. There's another comparison too: Starbucks may be more expensive than say Dunkin Doughnuts or Caribou Coffee, but it doesn't have to be. People don't have to get the cappuccinos. They can do Americanas, straight coffee drinks, simple espressos - no one puts a gun to my head and forces me to dress my drink up. I do it because (and whenever) I want to. It's a great perk - I'm an American! (and I have a job)

So...with big, fat, wet, tears rolling in my eyes I called the headquarters of my beloved Starbucks. I was transferred and transferred, and then I was actually hung up on, but I called back. I had to know. There was NO WAY I was going to take the manager's word for it at the store I usually buy my coffee from. She's awesome, but like me, she's 100% pro-trooper! She's going to tell me what I want to hear, and that's not what I needed. I wanted, yes, I wanted, but not what I had to possibly face. The call finally went through. I was sitting, literally on the edge of my rolling chair awaiting the answer. It was good.

Starbucks has so many stores with so many mangers, district manager, regional managers, and investors that somewhere along the line one or two of them discussed asking Starbucks to make a stand. How can a company that serves everyone from every walk do that? It would be corporate suicide! They aren't stupid! The coffee company itself isn't Starbucks, there are growers, distributors, customers, clients - we're all in this. I'm sure there are a dozen customers at any one time in any one store on any one corner: and that's just in Manhattan with their 100+ stores, that is going to be able to have a varied thought or two on the outcome, or even the onset of the war - OK...that's cool, but my goodness - to say that the STARBUCKS name is involved in something as terrible as NOT supporting MY troops, my son, my flesh - it isn't true. Thank God, it isn't true.

My store's manager (Rebecca) and my other store's manager (Betty) have teamed up with me to get a petition going to ask Starbucks to do the world a favor - or in the case of the troops, a flavor. We'd like to see a certain select or blend be dedicated to the troops - their memory, their support, their efforts - even a way of funding them, or thanking them. Every cup sold would generate money for patriotic causes here and overseas. It's a beginning - something we discussed over a good hot cup of coffee today!