Starbucks – What were you thinking!

My pastor loves Starbucks coffee.  He holds one of his bible study classes in a Starbucks, for goodness sakes.    He also has a heart for the homeless.    I think when he sees this Washington Post article, he may have a few words for the management, but I doubt he will give it up.  I have.   The story involves Starbucks and a homeless man in a wheelchair.

 I found the article in the Atlanta Jounal Constitution @issues column.

Photo thanks to  Carutapera | Pixel Alibi  (Creative Commons License)

( Photo not part of article)

A Starbucks shuns the unwashed

By Marc Fisher
Washington Post
Published on: 12/05/07

Al Szekely and Dawn Henderson, an unlikely pair, are regulars at the tables in front of a Starbucks in Washington, D.C. Dawn gets the coffee. Al provides the stories. Together, they haven’t yet solved the world’s problems, but they’re working on it.Or at least they were, until the Starbucks managers told Al he was no longer welcome at their establishment.

Al’s a homeless man with wild, matted white hair; a long, scraggly beard; and a hand-lettered sign alerting us to the fact that some creep stole his electric wheelchair, which is why Al is stuck in a manual chair, trundling along and aggravating the pain in his hips.

Dawn is a part-time comedian who works as a sales manager in Rockville, Md. She spends an inordinate share of her life at Starbucks. She’s a regular at five Starbucks, including shops near home, the office and various other markers in her daily travels. Dawn collects people, a couple of whom happen to be homeless.

So when she heard a Starbucks assistant manager and manager tell Al he had to leave the premises and would not be allowed back because the store didn’t want homeless people hanging around, Dawn was incensed.

“As much money as I spend with this company, they’re not going to kick you out,” Dawn told Al.

Al complied with the stay-away request and gave a friend his mug to take into the Starbucks, buy his coffee and bring it out to him while he waited up the block. But the Starbucks workers recognized Al’s cup and refused to fill it.

So Dawn posted an item on her blog detailing what she’d seen and heard. The store managers quickly started to feel the heat —- from customers and an outreach worker for the Friendship Place service center for the homeless, a couple of blocks from the Starbucks.

Last week, Dawn got calls from Seattle headquarters assuring her that the managers at the store had erred. To make amends, the store plans to increase its food and beverage donations to Friendship Place. But Dawn and Al remain perturbed. Dawn was outraged by the presumption that the Starbucks staff could discern who is homeless. “If you catch me on a bad Saturday, I’m going to look homeless,” she said.

If you can get past the untamed, filthy look, Al will break every stereotype you’ve ever had about homeless people. He audits classes at Georgetown Law. He has a blog. He writes poetry.

Like librarians, Starbucks managers struggle to find legal and moral ways to distinguish between those who are just hanging out and those who are disturbing others.  In this case, the managers went too far.

> Marc Fisher is a Washington Post columnist. His column appears occasionally.

Oldtimer’s comment.  I have a series on “Ministering to the Homeless” which will be a regular feature through at least the winter months.  The story above may spark a second series on How Not to Minister to the Homeless.

Starbucks,  It is too Little too Late.  You need to do something for our homeless all across this land! 

Oldtimer