On September 9, 2009, StarbucksMelody.com was born. I started this site with a purpose: To create enthusiasm around Starbucks, to promote a community of others interested in that enthusiasm, and to be informative about the products and brand, and not just write blog content that is based on whatever is hot in the news. I wanted to create my own stage. Even if there were no audience, I wanted an outlet for my thoughts and ideas about Starbucks as a brand. Hindsight is 20/20. Since I had no idea what I was doing when I started the blog, I just named it after me, but in retrospect, not sure I would have done that. Too late now: We’re stuck with “StarbucksMelody” as the url.
First and foremost, I need to go through a round of thank yous:
The blog would have never have happened if it hadn’t been for Kelly of Wildsagemarketing. Shortly after Labor Day weekend 2009, I was summoned to Jury Duty in King County Superior Court. I had just recently been on a Labor Day road trip to Northern California, and tried a test product called the Honey Vanilla Vivanno. I wanted to write about it. I wanted to blog. I had no clue how to make a blog, and didn’t want to put together something sloppy. I wanted to appear professional, even when I’m clearly not! During voir dire on a civil case, I made friends with Kelly, who was a prospective juror nearly adjacent to me (one person in between us). I don’t know how it happened but I mentioned that I used twitter, and Kelly said she was using it too. I asked Kelly what she did for a living and she said that does marketing and creates blogs and websites independently. I said, “oh, I need a blog. Do you like Starbucks?” The answer was “yes,” she likes Starbucks, and very quickly out of that, a blog was born. All I do is create content, and Kelly does everything that relates to layout, widgets, etc … There would be no blog without Kelly! Thank you Kelly!
In addition, I have to thank Seattle Custom Framing located in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. They’ve helped me enormously in numerous ways. Molly has framed things for me, taken numerous pictures for the blog, and we’ve had lots of caffeinated conversations. On top of it all, she’s a bold coffee drinker. Thank you Molly.
When I started this, I had no idea what I was getting in to. I had no clue how much work this was going to be. This is like having a part-time job on top of a full-time job. At numerous points, I’ve nearly given up. It earns me no money. It does zero to improve my professional life. However, I have a genuine joy for coffee and I really do cherish the experiences that can be had in a Starbucks. The people here who comment are great motivators to me. In the course of one year, I’ve managed to reach out to well over 55,000 unique readers from 144 countries. I’m thanking all 55,000 of you right now. The experience of being able to amplify the fun that Starbucks has to offer is quite addictive, and to see it spread like a contagious coffee zeal, is unbelievable. I need to especially thank every single person who has left a comment, or sent me an email, or otherwise reached out to me.
Blogging future:
I can’t continue to write and maintain this blog at this pace. When I make requests of Starbucks, I’ve also been told “no” to a number of my specific requests. I am totally amazed that I’ve come up with a year’s worth of content. If I continue to blog at the pace of 3 to 4 times per week, two things will happen: I will wear out and I will run out of content. I think in the future, after today, this blog is going to update less frequently. My goal will be to update the blog twice a week, on Sundays, and Wednesdays. At one point I tweeted (I think) that I was going to just completely quit blogging on September 9th, but I’ve changed my mind, and now resolve to blog according to a twice a week schedule. I hope that everyone reading this will click on the button about ‘subscribing’ to the blog so that you’ll be notified of my blog updates!
There are a few other blogs that I read, so I invite my readers to visit them too. Just be sure to come back here when I update my site! 😉 Please click on the subscribe button on the upper right of your screen!
- Mike Crimmins in Florida writes the Daily Shot of Coffee blog – Fun because of the wide variety of coffees he finds to review, and he sometimes does great round up posts featuring the best of the best of a variety of coffee blogs (and there really are an amazingly large number of coffee blogs).
- Melissa Allison of the Seattle Times produces the Coffee City blog – I met her in person luckily right after this blog started. I owe her a big thank you for the encouragement, retweets, and mentions in her blog. She has a great Seattle-focused coffee blog.
- Andrew in Canada writes the Starbucks Passion blog – He is essentially doing the exact same thing as me: A customer with a Starbucks enthusiastic blog.
- April in Florida produces the Coffee Vanilla blog – A coffee oriented blog, with a lot coffee beverage passion, and sometimes great recipes too.
- Valeria in Italy/ Pennsylvania produces Conversation Agent – It’s a blog about marketing, PR, and blogging. I like it because she has a style of writing that when you’re done reading her content it leaves you still thinking and pondering. Of course, she does NOT need a plug from me. Her blog is well-established, and very active.
The best of the first year of StarbucksMelody:
At this one year review point, I hope that readers will take a look back at the best of the best of the blog entries. I’m sure that some of these blog entries irritated Starbucks, and some gave our Siren a little joy. Here are a few gems from the archives (by the way, including this blog entry today, there are 177 blog articles on this site. That makes it tough to pick out a few below!):
The best of store reviews:
- The First Starbucks – 1912 Pike Place – This blog entry takes you on a virtual trip into the Pike Place Starbucks, and it’s an uplifting store visit.
- Legendary lives in Eureka, California
- New Clover in Gold River, California – I have special fondness for this one because I got to put on a green apron!
The best of Starbucks history posts:
- The 1992 Starbucks Shareholder Report – This is the complete online shareholder report of the very FIRST report published in 1993 for the 1992 year. It truly represents the ideals of a tiny corporation in 1992.
- A Starbucks history lesson: Bottled Mazagran – This is a fun history lesson about the first beverage produced by the partnership between Pepsi and Starbucks. And it didn’t sell so well.
- Passion for Coffee: A 1994 Starbucks book – This also demonstrates the incredible passion Starbucks has for coffee.
The best of the best – Blog posts that everyone loves:
- Starbucks Chalk Art – Entries and Winners – This is an amazing blog post featuring lots of reader-submitted pics of amazing barista chalkboard art. So much talent wearing green aprons!
- Streetlevel 101 – There are two mercantile Starbucks – This remains as a solid blog post to somewhat explain that there are TWO non-branded Starbucks stores. Though given that so much time has gone by, it needs minor updating in terms of food offerings, but it is still a solid blog post.
- The faces of Starbucks – Candid pictures from the land of green and black aprons – This is a fairly recent blog post, and it’s a joy to see all these great photos. Thank you to every single person who sent in a picture to make this great.
- An introduction to Shared Planet – This is actually not the most popular blog post ever but the information in it is still solid, and it’s a great basic introduction to ethical coffee sourcing.
The best of coffee education blog posts:
- Starbucks Caffe Verona Coffee – This blog post gives a fun little history about Verona.
- The magic of Sumatra and Aged Sumatra – Who doesn’t love these coffees? Such beautiful complex flavors! This blog post gives some sourcing information.
- For the love of Mexico Chiapas – This was a seasonal coffee offering in January of this year. I hope it comes back. Really a delightful coffee, and this blog post is an example of a superb coffee tasting event to showcase this coffee.
- Galapagos Island San Cristobal Coffee Roasting Event at the Starbucks Headquarters – This is a fun blog post. You can see the white bags that the green beans are shipped in to Starbucks. There are a few photos showing the roasting of this coffee during a few different stages.
The blog posts that caused controversy and/or likely made Starbucks wince and wish I would go away:
- Shareholder Meeting Round Up – The extremely gossipy I will regret posting this version – The blog title says it all, and is still the truth. I probably should have de-published this a long time ago.
- For a few minutes, Howard Schultz, Melody, and Winter all in the same room – This blog is mostly an interview with Winter, who is famous for being on a quest to visit every company-operated Starbucks in the world. The post was written with a tone of regret, that Howard Schultz walked right past us, and didn’t say hello. It was a moment of sadness because Howard has said hello to me several times before, and on this moment, I wished that Winter would get to meet Howard. But I can’t make that happen.
- Should Starbucks’ Michelle Gass go on UnderCover Boss? – Who likes this idea? This is a blog post inspired by UnderCover Boss! (And blog posted with great apologies to Michelle Gass!)
The most personal blog post:
- This little Starbucks Air Force Bearista Bear – This blog post has nothing to do with Starbucks, and it is truly stories, all very real to me, of life and death.
The best of the posts that relate to the Starbucks card:
- The First and Battery Card – This card is also called the “Twilight” card. It features the front of a big store with heavy curtains, in a classic old building. I like this card because it is a real Starbucks here in Seattle. This blog entry teaches you a little more.
- Understanding MyStarbucksRewards – The four common pitfalls – I think the rewards program can be confusing in many ways, but these areas pop up frequently as problem areas.
- Top ten reasons to be a part of MyStarbucksRewards – I wrote this to be funny, but even now, I still kind of like this blog post.
- Collecting Starbucks Cards and Howard Schultz’s autograph – This is another just for fun blog post about the Starbucks card.
There are more posts that I particularly enjoy but I don’t want to overwhelm this blog entry. And now, I end this one year round up by saying that I hope that you will stay with me for another year’s journey with Starbucks. Tell your friends about my site! Come back every Wednesday and Sunday!
And now it’s your turn to say whatever you want in the comments, tell me what to blog about in the future, tell me your favorite blog post, or give me your two cents about this site, or should I just call it quits? …Anything related to Starbucks or this blog is fair game in the comments.
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Congratulations, Melody! Please don’t stop doing this blog (though I doubt anyone chose “call it quits”) – it’s something I look forward to reading. This is a great read with a cup of coffee (literally), or, even though some of the local things just make me jealous that I cannot try out so many different stores in Starbucks’ home town, a great read, period. I love your passion for Starbucks (I couldn’t see the site name any other way – it’s a draw, in my opinion, because it gives a personal touch; I apologize for asking if you’ve already answered in the comments or somehow I missed it in the blog, but in hindsight, what would you like the name to be?) and the time spent informing the masses, having contests, or just putting information out there whether you had readers or not (that’s a plus to know).
Good luck in future years!
It’s funny you mention Jury Duty & Starbucks conversations. When I had Jury Duty years ago (it was in the papers that Arnold Schwartzenegger was the new governor of CA), one of my fellow jurors was a Starbucks barista, and on the 2nd day, he brought in some House Blend and replaced the crud in the jury room. It was so good that the Judge ended up hearing about it, and came in to grab a cup for himself!
@Hobo’sFriend and @Winnie –
@Hobo’sFriend – Welcome to the blog! I think you’ll love it here if you stick around!
@Winnie – Thank you for the great intro post. I really hope you’ll come back. Welcome and tell your friends. I sometimes just think that passion is part of a personality. Not really sure where it comes from or if it can be developed.
When I started the blog I sort of just thought “I’m Melody and this is my blog about Starbucks, so let’s call it StarbucksMelody.” I didn’t think about the possibility that it could put me personally in a spotlight. To a small degree, I’m a personality. Obviously I’m not a celeb, and the number of people who know who I am is small, but it’s weird to think that somewhere on the other coast and in far away places, there are people who know about “That customer Melody”. It might have been more appropriate to just call it “Starbucks Fans and Friends” or something a little more generic. Well, some names would never sound quite right. I mean, what about the idea of a “StarbucksHoward” blog. Hahaha!
And that’s a great jury duty story! Thanks again for the comment.
Congrats on your one year anniversary, Melody!
Your blog is a great combination of passion, knowledge and strong writing. I don’t get over here as much as I’d like but, when I do, it’s always a pleasure to read.
For all the effort SBUX has put into social media (and the resulting kudos they get for those efforts), I am amazed they don’t do more to nurture your passion and leverage it for their benefit. As far as I’m concerned, that’s an unforced error on their part and is a result of cultural arrogance; pure and simple.
Keep up the good work!
How about that comment Melody? Juan’s second paragraph says exactly what I wanted to say but better. Somewhere I read that Starbucks said no to some of your requests and I just think that is appauling considering the good PR you do for them.
congratulations on your one year anniversary, Melody!
OMG! The anniversary passed and I MISSED IT!!! *sulks*
Happy Belated Anniversary, Melody, and PLEASE keep on blogging!!!
…I just noticed there is a guy posting as Juan Valdez. o_O”
Melody- You know I discovered one of the nice things about your new way of adding threads to this great blog is that I can now have the time to go back and read earlier threads and find comments I never saw. What a great treat!
Melody- I really don’t think that SB can diminish the popularity of this blog. Their competing blog, if you mean MSI, is not at all like yours and the more I go to MSI the more disappointed I am in how it is evolving. They really need to go back to the beginning and rework it because it has changed so much. The content and spirit in your blog far outweighs MSI and the community you have created is so much better. And I agree your comment re passion! I raise my glass of iced green tea to you!!!
Wow it’s been a year already? Thanks for the great blog reccomends, besides Mikes blog I had not heard of any of these. I have now added them to my reading schedule.
I am glad you are continuing at twice a week. I really enjoy your posts.
Quick question: What type of requests did Sbux say no to?
@JasonCoffee – I don’t have time but I’m going to type a quick reply – Many typos likely. There were 2 specific dissappointments:
1. In early Spring of this year I came up with the idea that it would be fun to do an interview of Timothy Jones, a corporate partner. I had ran into someone who knew him at store #308, and I knew the name “Timothy Jones” as being completely associated with Starbucks music. I didn’t know much but I remembered that Mr. Jones is mentioned in Pour Your Heart Into It. The person I ran into told me that Mr. Jones has been a partner since 1989, and was very close to retirement.
I prepared a diligent email and sent it to press@Starbucks.com asking for an interview of him. I knew that if I didn’t get to him soon, it wouldn’t happen. I even attached sample interview questions, which were all music related questions over the years. I followed the exact procedures on how to request an interview.
Basically I got no response. I was ignored. I sent a follow up email to press@Starbucks.com on 5-11 this year, and that too was ignored.
As far as I’m concerned, if I get ignored twice, that’s a “no”. Another part of the lesson learned is that I am still just an ordinary customer and nobody is paying particular attention to emails coming in from my email address. Such is life. Yes I get they’re busy, but it was a little disappointing to me. I followed the exact proper procedure that media is supposed to use.
At this point, this idea is gone … Probably Mr. Jones is long since retired, and now it’s a moot point.
2. I specifically sent an email asking for a tour of the Kent Roasting Plant – I think that’s a GREAT idea for a blog entry. Really unique, and kind of right in the core of Starbucks. This was a direct email exchange with someone in PR, and not through the press@Starbucks.com email address. I was politely told “no”. From what I know, the Kent Roasting Plant is the Fort Knox of Starbucks. When I google, I can find almost no content on the roasting plant.
That’s all I have time for. Sorry this is short and choppy.
That is VERY disappointing. I wonder if you could get ahold of Mr. Jones directly.
You would think that with all the blogging/promoting you have been doing that is almost 100% positive they would give you more of an ear.
In my view You are NOT just an “Ordinary Starbucks Customer” and I have feeling that as the internet world evolves your relationship with them will also.
After reading about Starbucks’ inappropiate treatment of your requests for an interview my opinion of Starbucks has sunk to a new level. I consider it very rude to ignore an e-mail. I agree people are busy so it is acceptable to maybe not answer someone’s e-mail for a couple or 3 days but no more than a week and I think it is EXTREMELY rude to ignore two e-mails and not at least be courteous enough to reply with an explanation why you can’t interview the guy.
And as far as the secrecy regarding their Kent plant what were they trying to hide? Obviusly you were not going to steal any trade secrets or spit in the roasting batch or anything. You said you were “poliely” told no. Was any exclanation given? I doubt it. Anyway Melody I gotta go now but just wanted you to know that Starbucks was extermely rude and their behavior was, in my opinion, not acceptable.
I sure agree that SB did not handle your interview and tour request in the customer service style one would expect from a company like SB. Furthermore, even if you consider yourself just a regular customer they are aware that you have an excellent blog with a diverse readership that covers not only the USA but Europe and Asia and I would think they would not want to snub you or offend your readers by giving you that kind of response. Boo to SB!
Never really checked and am curious- When you redeem your free drink coupon are you given a star as you are when you purchase a drink with your registered card? I have never really checked in my account.
Purple- you are not given a star, at least I am never given on.
Amy is right Purple you do not get a star for your 16th free drink because it is free. The next drink, or anything else you purchase, earns a star as long as you pay for it with your gold card up to 15 stars then the process starts all over again. I honestly do not know where the stars go from the time you earn them until the time it apperas on line 24 hours later but you can check by signing in and clicking on “check my rewards”. For instance yesterday I had 4 stars and I bought a cup of coffee in the morning and used my treat receipt in the afternoon paying for both with my gold card. When I checked on line this morning I had 5 stars since it was 24 hours since I bought my cup of coffee. The 6th star will appear later on this afternoon. It would, I admit, be a lot easier if the stars appeared immediately after you earn them. Maybe that’s something Starbucks could work on.
Steve I always am checking the number of stars I have, but I was not sure although I figured a free drink did not give me a star. I do notice that they indicate when you redeem a free drink on your rewards history so I was not sure. I guess I was hoping they would consider that a purchase!!! LOL
When I redeem a free drink coupon, the barista usually just tears it in half….no card is swiped in the transaction….so there would be no way to “record” a star.
Stars are earned for purchases. If you use your Free Drink coupon and purchase something in the same transaction, you do earn a Star. If you only use your coupon, then no payment, and no Star.
Instant Stars or shortening the amount of time it takes Stars to “travel” is on the list, but we’re working harder on getting licensees on board so that we can stop mailing postcards. One thing at a time – which really isn’t true, it’s many things at once in priority order. 🙂
sbuxnat
If your balance is instantly recorded both on your reciept and on line I can’t figure out why the stars aren’t as well. Where do they go?
@steve – seems simple enough doesn’t it. unfortunately payment systems and loyalty systems are not the same or always combined. infrastructures exist to do it all at the same time in sub-sub second response times, but is expensive and laborsome to put in place. plus there are multitudes of rules that your transaction and your account has to be qualified through before Stars are delivered and your level updated. like I said working on faster Star delivery is on the list, but there are more urgent things that come before it. hope that helps.
hey – feel free to write in on mystarbucksidea.com or twitter (@starbuckscard) – i can answer all kinds of stuff there where I’m paid to do so! 🙂
Sounds like coporate gibberish to me. If the balance can be on instantly why not the stars?
@Steve @sbuxnat @karldotcome
@Steve- Yes you’re right no star when redeeming the paper coupon. You mention you get a star when paying with your gold card, but actually you get a star when paying with ANY card registered to your Starbucks.com – Doesn’t have to be the gold one.
@Karldotcom – Yep – My baristas do the same thing. Just take the card and tear it and nothing gets swiped.
@SbuxNat – Thanks for stepping in and helping. 🙂
@Steve I use the same Point of Sale (POS) system as Starbucks at work – it does not include a loyalty rewards module – you either need to purchase and integrate one or write your own. As @SbuxNat said it isn’t easy.
And the vendor keeps patching the POS and changing stuff so even when you integrate or custom a loyalty module you need to keep up with the changing POS – however the vendor is making a whole release / version of the POS for Starbucks so they really are pushing for a better system.
Since we’re on the topic of stars – I used my card at a couple of airport Starbucks recently and I don’t think I got any stars. What a bummer. And worse, yesterday I made a large breakfast purchase and forgot to ask for split up transactions. Sigh. You really do spend a lot of dough to get to your 16th free drink.
About a month or so ago I was missing a couple stars and called Starbucks and explained and the nice guy not only gave me my 2 missing stars but gave me an extra one to boot! Don’t know how it will be now that Starbucks is no longer handling their customer service. As for your multiple purchase, those extra stars are, unfortunately, lost forever. I never have that problem because I only buy 1 item, usually a cup of coffee on my way back from the lake to get a treat receipt or a blue berry muffin when they don’t have the treat receipt.
As for the “rewards module” I do not know what that is Amazon V. I guess POS has more than one meaning than point of sale if you know what I mean.
I agree Steve that stars should be put into your account and be current and it is confusing as to why the software system is so complicated. Congrats on getting the extra star! I also think they shouldhave a system where you can keep better track of the free drink coupons mailed out vs. the number you are owed. I didn’t start to keep track from the beginning so I am not sure if I am owed any free drink coupons. I keep track of when I am due one though. Maybe when they change the system and get rid of the post cards, things will be easier!!!!
Actually Purple, and anyone else that is listening, I think they should do away with these stars, post cards, and free drinks, which are really not free when you add up the extra you pay in those 15 separate transactions to get them, and go back to the 10% discount on everything. Now that is a real reward and Starbucks was still making 90% so they weren’t losing money and in fact making a little more since people would tend to spend more to get thg 10% discount. But free is a powerful word and most people don’t stop to think how much free really costs.
Oh, I doubt Starbucks will ever go back. The bean counters pointed out that the discount is cut by more than half by the current program, yet is seems more popular. (There are over 1 million current gold card members)