Every once in a while, the news is filled with stories that purport that Starbucks has an antagonistic relationship with the military and/or service veterans. These stories inflame emotions and sensationalize views that are not held by Starbucks corporate staff in Seattle. Starbucks is not perfect. Recently, there have been news stories of a disabled veteran not being allowed entry into Starbucks with his service dog. There’s no doubt, the partner (Starbucks calls their employees partners) made the wrong call. I agree, it should not have happened, and it makes me question that particular partner’s ability to create welcoming, and inspired moments. What I do know is this: it is not a pattern of larger, generalized mal-treatment of U.S. Veterans by Starbucks. And yes, I would agree that there should be consequences for that partner who made the wrong call. (That’s up to Starbucks to figure out what those consequences should be).
Customers become outraged, as if an isolated incident inside a store represents a corporate agenda to have an antagonistic relationship with the military and/or veterans. On the contrary, Starbucks is constantly working on various programs and projects to show their commitment to our veterans.
To clear up one more thing, there are still people who receive a viral email that says, “Starbucks doesn’t support the troops” and is signed by a Sgt. Wright. This 10-year old viral email has been debunked many times over, and yet still causes problems, to this day. You can read the official Starbucks newsroom statement on supporting the troops here.
I think it’s worthwhile to look at some of the things that Starbucks has in place (or has done) to support our military and our troops:
- Reduced shipping costs for StarbucksStore.com orders being sent to an APO or FPO mailing address. (Actually, I’d like to see it dropped even more!)
- An internal Armed Forces Network to support U.S. military Starbucks partners and veterans. (You can “like” that group on Facebook too.)
- A commitment to hire at least 10,000 U.S. veterans over the next five years.
- A free tall brewed coffee to all veterans, active duty, and military spouses on Veteran’s Day 2013. (I hope to see this repeated in 2014)
- Starbucks has opened “Community Stores” which donate a portion of their profits to programs that benefit veterans.
There have been countless store-level efforts to send coffee to troops, including collection efforts and donations. I have heard of partners donating their markout of coffee, or buying coffee to donate. A quick Google search came up with a story about a Baltimore Starbucks collecting coffee donations to send to troops. I found this ‘hero to hero’ website describing large scale donations of coffee to troops. Buried deep in this website, it states that a Starbucks in Grass Valley donated to troops (there’s no date on it). One of the challenges is that when an individual store coordinates donation efforts, rarely is there any media surrounding it. In June 2013, I was in Orange County, and visited the Rancho Santa Margarita Evenings Starbucks, which had just completed a district-wide campaign to donate coffee to Camp Pendelton troops. I actually did sit down and meet the store’s district manager the day of my visit, and I learned from her that every store within her district participated to gather and donate thousands of pounds of coffee and Via Ready Brew for U.S. Marines at Camp Pendelton. I took a snap shot of the thank you letter signed by the Marines:
I wish I had a larger, better quality image of that letter. Again, one of the challenges is that sometimes that good things that Starbucks does gets zero attention.
I’m probably not going to change anyone’s mind with this article. I just find it surprising that many customers believe the action of one store manager or store partner represents some agenda from the Seattle headquarters: not true. If you could persuade me that there was some corporate plan to be antagonistic to veterans and/or the military, I’d have to change my thinking about Starbucks, but it simply isn’t the case. And, I’ve said a ton of times before on this blog, but I too was in the military at one time in my life. I joined the Air Force when I was 18 and served for four peaceful years, honorably discharged at the age of 22. It forever changed my thinking on some things, and gave me great respect and appreciation for our volunteer armed forces, regardless of whether they’re in combat or not. The military is a complete ecosystem, and every moving part is important.
I only hope that with this article, I’ve given you some food for thought about Starbucks and veterans/military.
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Very well put together blog post, Melody! Thank you for writing on this subject. As the child of an Air Force veteran, these are issues near and dear to my heart. There is a partner at my store who is in the Marines Reserves, and so he goes off on a drill one weekend a month and every few months travels somewhere a bit longer. He’s said many times there are few jobs willing to be so patient and flexible with that type of availability. Hearing people regurgitate that old email over and over again hurts my feelings, because the love and support Starbucks has, as a company and from individual partners, for military members is vast.
Now if only the 2-3 dozen idiots who bash Starbucks’ Facebook page on a daily basis, accusing them of not sending the troops freebies, would read this & prevent making a fool of themselves… Aw forget it, there’s no cure for stupid (education is a worthwhile treatment option, but in the long run, it can’t force someone to have common sense).
I am a Starbucks partner and my son was deployed as a marine to Afghanistan a few years ago. Our store took up a donation of via to send to his platoon, I was so touched at how many partners and customers donated over $ 4000 in via! We sent many boxes over there. We left a marker on the counter so people could sign or send a message on the package, I cried as I packed the wonderful encouraging messages so many people included.
Very well written. Thank you for sharing. I had no idea that some people think that Starbucks has an overall agenda against our troops or veterans. This seems preposterous to me, as all of the troops and veterans are potential customers, and Starbucks loves their customers.
I think you will change minds with this blog entry. The readers will remember this post the next time something negative something comes up on social media regarding Starbucks and the military. And hopefully, the readers (at least I will!) will direct folks to this post. Thanks again, Melody!
From a 12 year partner, thank you for clarifying that this is a partner error, and not Starbucks company policy.
@Melody, great blog post and good points. As a Veteran I am well aware of what Starbucks has done and is doing. IMHO, your blog has done more to highlight Starbucks efforts than Starbucks own Social Media.
Those that condemn Starbucks are covering up inadequacies in their own life and philanthropy. Unfortunately the Internet is full of immature idiots. Some of the blame though has to go back to the companies as they do not properly respond to the flames and false reports.
There is a general lesson here for Starbucks. Simply training and re-training.
And for the majority of Starbucks Partners, you are appreciated but under recognized.
@DadCooks – Thanks for your comment. One thing I notice, just sort of generally speaking, is that people are quick to point fingers at how others should spend their money, in their opinions. It’s just sort of an aside that anything that deals with money, people are quick to finger wag in comments. And so is true with donations: it is much easier to ask a big corporation to donate than do it yourself. And, it’s easier to spend someone else’s money.
@Judith – Thank you for 12 years!
@Laily Haikal – Every post right now on Starbucks Facebook official page is bashing. Or at least it feels like that. It’s exhausting. I guess it was really the motivation to write this. By the way, I think this post would get ripped apart on the official Starbucks Facebook page right now, just because the current tone of voice there is pretty angry. I doubt those folks will find their way here, but I hope a few do read this.
I appreciate everyone’s comments even if I haven’t written a person reply here. Thank you!
I am so glad too that you wrote this post Melody. I was at the gym when I saw the news piece about the veteran and his dog and it amazed me that in listening to the commentary from journalists they just went on and on about how SB needs to act in a better manner. Thank you for showing folks that this is not a SB corporate issue.
Thanks for this post, Melody. I am amazed at how people just believe everything they read and refuse to look for the real facts themselves. I had a rather heated discussion myself one day when my UPS man was delivering a package to me clearly marked from StarbucksStore. He said he refuses to buy from them now since they don’t support the troops. I told him that was untrue and that he should do some real research about it. I hadn’t heard about the disabled vet and that is something Starbucks will have to jump on for damage control. But people will believe whatever they want so it’ll be a battle.
Melody, first thanks for a great article.
My hubby was a disabled vet with a service dog and no he wasn’t blind. Most people don’t realize that there are service animals for many disabilities so we spent alot of time explaining it. We were turned away from many places, the military commissary for one but after calmly explaining just what his dog was/did and showing the paperwork things went smoothly. The key to taking a service dog anywhere is to be prepared for confrontation but address it calmly. My hub had PTSD so calm wasn’t always easy but we learned to just take deep breaths and move on. Hopefully as more people like you write great articles the public will become more aware but until then the disabled will face many more confrontations with their service animals.
Great post, as always, Melody. Thank you, @Dadcooks, and all others who have or do serve.
This was so unfortunate, especially because it affected a veteran. It’d be helpful if all service animals wore an ‘I’m a service animal’ halter/sign (for both military or non-military), so that there would be instant recognition so this wouldn’t happen. Service animals aren’t always helping people with obvious physical impairments, and there are companion animals, too. Hopefully this incident brought more awareness to the public, and that more people read up before criticizing Starbucks.
Thanks for posting this timely blog as I have done my best to defend the misinformation that is out there on the Internet but it is sadly to no avail. People believe rumors over facts too often these days and Starbucks will deal with this forever.
My name is Roge Lewis and Im the president of the Domicilary at the Fort Sheridan V.A., its a homeless program that helps Military Veterans get back on the feet.I was wondering would you please donate some of your coffee to us.If you did the vets would really appreciate it
Hi Roge Lewis – I don’t work for Starbucks. Have you tried asking your local Starbucks for donations or calling customer service? Hopefully they’ll say yes and donate to you. Good luck!
Thanks.