Mika
-
Starbucks Recycling & Other Feedback
01:21:00 pm on October 3, 2007
Dear Starbucks,
As a patron that visits mostly your Portland stores at least 20 times per month if not significantly more, including some necessary evening and afternoon caffeine injections, I find it really sad that your business decisions seem to include a lot of unnecessary waste.
This isn’t some rant about how you are evil by trying to conquer the world of coffee retailing (if you haven’t already) but some long-considered feedback about waste that is apparent to me as a consumer, and things that could be easily rectified.
Below you’ll find a few reasons that could be dealt with. I’ve even included some suggestions so I’m not one of those complainers that actually offers no input on how to make things better.
You don’t offer recycling for plastic, glass, or paper in your stores. At our office, we’ve decided to put your paper cups to good use for something (stay tuned for this one) since it pains me to toss them away at your store. We used to carry them back to our office to recycle, but that is so boring and would be unnecessary if you had a recycling container on-site. As a side note, it really frustrates me when I get a “double cup” from baristas. Isn’t that what the sleeve was intended for? Quick fix: Get some recycling bins from your local garbage suppliers and put them in the store. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just useful.
Only 10% recycled fiber in your cups? Come on now. 10% is barely anything. But I’m ignorant about food-container laws, so maybe this isn’t your fault. I’ll not press it. Quick fix: Have cups produced with higher recycled materials if possible.
Your “Song of the day” idea is great. But why print cards to give away? This is just more wasted paper and trash. Shame on you! Ya’ll are from Seattle, right? Aren’t you all tree-huggers up there, or is the money starting to get in the way of business decisions? Quick fix: Give away a different code every day on something like starbucks.com/song/ or print the code on your cups or the hot-sleeves.
You’re selling songs on itunes now instead of a CD. This is great! But please don’t make us buy cardboard to go download electronic music. But, at least this is a step in the right direction. Now if only I could recycle the cardboard after I download my music onto the laptop or ipod touch through the on-site t-mobile hotspot…
Also, please stop putting more add-on sale stuff into your stores. I know it’s nice to make more money (hey, I like it too) but I don’t want to buy a book or a stuffed animal with my morning coffee. The extra space could be used for expanding your food offerings (good job on the bacon-avacado-burrito thingy and the lunch salads) to include some items that are presumably healthier than the glazed donuts and chocolate coffee cake. I for one would by more food-ish items for breakfast or lunch.
Thanks for listening.
Paul 9:02 am on October 8, 2007 | #
You could just take in your own personal insulated cup so you don’t have to use paper, don’t burn your hands.
So I can no longer buy a CD at Starbucks!!?? That sucks, while iTunes is nice, it doesn’t play in my car, and it has the damn DRM that keeps me from sharing it across my many computers. Yes, I know they have NON DRM music, but I’m assuming that the music I WANT is DRM’ed.
Also, what good is iTunes music if I want to hear the CD NOW and not wait till I’m at a computer. Not everybody has a smartphone with a 1TB flash drive built in, some of us are still eeking by with our Motorola 8000s, which by the way were the BEST phone of all time. You can pound a nail with it, beat down a grumpy pimp and still carry a call through the tunnel Highway 26. (http://www.our-picks.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/8000grey3.jpg)
I personally thing the extra crap they sell is handy. There have been a number of times I’ve needed a last minute birthday or thank you gift and it’s nice to get a card, a starbucks gift certificate and a CD or coffee cup or other thing to give with it. It takes up minimal space and has a good markup for them so it’s a boon in a retail sense.
You know the best way to avoid all this… don’t go to Starbucks, frequent your locally owned, independent coffee shop!
Reply From Starbucks About Recycling : mika.lepisto.com 2:44 pm on October 8, 2007 | #
[...] Starbucks has responded to my previous post about Starbucks recycling via email. Here you go: Hello Mika, [...]
Mika 3:02 pm on October 8, 2007 | #
You got some points there, PK. But I actually like the coffee from ‘bux better and the service is quick. Compared to the locally-owned coffee shops that I’ve been to it is AT LEAST 75% faster. If you go to Crema on 28th at the wrong time you can spend about 20 minutes before you get to order your coffee, and that’s with about 12 people in line.