coffee classes

This morning i headed to a Starbucks to grab my morning fix before heading to work. In front of me were a couple, skinny boy with a low voice, short girl in a veil and jeans too tight, who were taking forever to decide to order. I patiently waited and when they finally made their choice they were having one orange juice, in house. The nice lady employee at the cashier denied them. She insisted that one orange juice wasn't enough to grant them seats in the comfortable, spacious Starbucks branch. The girl fought with her for a while, she really wanted to sit down for a bit with her friend, eventually lost, and left with her friend and without her orange juice.

I, of course, could not shut up and had to stick my nose into it. I asked the cashier if that was true, if there was a minimum order charge for them to sit down. She said there wasn't. Then she got all worked up and told me the story that is the point of this post.

She said couples like that come in everyday, order one drink for 10-20 pounds and occupy seats for four to five hours on end. The problem with that particular branch of Starbucks is that it is open to the street. Customers can walk right in through two entrances and sit down using it as a hang out until they are asked to order or leave. What's worse than that is that they sometimes get (smelly) food like foul and taamiya from other oriental 'fast food' chains then sit down and consume them at Starbucks, stinking up the place. She told me that even when employees want to eat something from elsewhere on their break they place their food in Starbucks branded bags then go outside the premises to eat.

What struck me most was the class controversy. I have sometimes walked into the same Starbucks with a friend and we'd have just coffee and maybe a water and we were always welcome to sit wherever and for as long as we wanted to. Mind you, we'd only stay for half an hour tops. But i know that that particular couple didn't look like the social class that was welcomed at Starbucks and similar venues. It is on the one had, unfair, but on the otehr hand, they are not welcome because they do not respect the place.

These chains are open here for a reason: to make money. Whether a whole ton or just enough to stay open, their sole purpose is money. They import coffee, furnish the place in specific branding, pay a whole lot of rental of prime locations, train their staff, and keep with place in shape with high maintenance all to make money. They want customers in, coffees and food ordered, customers out, and repeat. They don't the sappy couple that will come in abuse their nice seats all for the price of an orange juice or the re-sale of a non-Starbucks branded bottle of water.

I had sympathy for the couple who were turned away and denied seats but then again i had sympathy for the employees forced to nicely turn people away because their attitude behavior harms the franchise.

And in my anti-communist, disbelieving-in-fairness-to-all mind, the franchise wins every time.