by Melody on September 1, 2010
Not too long ago I featured a blog entry with a picture of a partner in Texas, at work in his store. It was a great candid photo, and it made me think that there might be more of these kinds of photos out there. It’s always fun to look at pictures of smiley faces, and surely working at Starbucks produces some happy faces, and so I put out a call to gather such photos. This was easier said than done. The previous blog post was here:
The faces of Starbucks: Seeking pics of real people, real partners
I had outlined a long list of rules, but most people sort of half-way followed them. I ended up cropping people out of photographs where the permission to use the person’s image appeared ambiguous to me. In other words, if a partner sent in a pic with him or her standing next to someone, and that other person didn’t provide me permission to use their image, I cropped the photo. As a result of this, a few of the photos below may appear oddly cropped.
I realize this was a tough request that I made. Most people aren’t really all that fond of sharing face pics. Furthermore, I asked for just partner participation which limited the number of emails I would get. I didn’t imagine that I would get a bunch of close ups, because I thought candid pics will sometimes be at a distance. I got a mix of both. I really have to thank every single person who sent in a picture. It is much appreciated. Those people who sent an address with the emailed photo will get a ‘prize’ from me – The prizes, listed in a previous blog post, were a very cool Starbucks coffee stirrer, and a $10 Starbucks gift card. Oddly, very few people included an address with their picture submission.
The photo that is the anchor photo for this blog requires a short explanation. The barista is now, only just recently, a former partner and right here in Seattle. She is someone whom I used to see regularly. Although she’s left the company, we talked on the phone recently and she shared this photo and said I could use it. It doesn’t really count as a pic for a prize, but this person is one coffee knowledgeable and passionate person!
The kind of passion that people have for Starbucks as a brand is inspiring, and you can definitely see it in these pictures. It makes each and every one of these pics its own precious gem.
Enjoy and please comment!
by Melody on August 29, 2010
A former Starbucks partner in Maryland recently contacted me and said that she had some old t-shirts she was getting rid of. She used the “contact” form on this site and said that she had been reading the blog, and wanted to know if I wanted her old t-shirts. I had no idea what I would be getting, but of course I said “yes.” A few days ago I received the box. Inside it were numerous Starbucks t-shirts spanning more than a decade of Starbucks history. It was amazing to look at them. She had quite a collection. Two of the t-shirts shown below are my own that I decided to mention and show in this blog post too.
A number of the t-shirt photos demand a little discussion surrounding them:
The Tiazzi t-shirt probably dates from somewhere in 2000. There was a mango citrus Tazo Tiazzi juice beverage offered in the summer of 2000 and so the t-shirt that says, “a mango bumped into a cup of tea” likely dates from that era. A few years after the Tiazzi juice blends, there was another summer offering of tangerine Tazo blended tea, or a pomegranate blended tea. They were delicious. I wouldn’t mind seeing them return.
It’s hard to believe that the Creme Frappuccino was ever a new item, but indeed it was introduced to the Starbucks beverage line-up in 2002. The t-shirt announcing its introduction is dated (by the way, I’ve noticed that Starbucks is often terrible about dating marketing materials of any kind. It can be really difficult to pick up any old mug, tumbler, marketing item, even old Clover menu and know exactly what era it dates from.)
Also there is below a t-shirt for the 25th Anniversary of Starbucks. That’s an old t-shirt! I’m amazed it looks barely worn. I assume that was a promotional t-shirt in 1996. I do know that there were a number of promotional items for the 25th Anniversary of Starbucks, because I think the Starbucks at 1912 Pike Place had its own tumbler, and I believe there may have been other tumblers to celebrate this anniversary. I’m sorry that I don’t have an image of the 25th Anniversary 1912 Pike Place tumbler, but I have it somewhere, so I think it exists.
There is a blurry t-shirt photo below, with the words “All Books For Children” on it. I’m sorry the picture is not clear. This book drive program is mentioned in the Starbucks 2001 CSR Annual Report. It’s described as follows:
To support our literacy efforts, Starbucks collects books through our annual All Books for Children drive and distributes them to more than 180 literacy organizations across North America. Since 1997, nearly 1.5 million books, including 416,000 in fiscal 2001, have been collected in our stores from partners and community members.
I think that All Books For Children is a program that somehow died, but at one time it was important enough for its own t-shirt. A promotional t-shirt for an outside Starbucks good cause is a rare thing. This t-shirt is also a Christmas Blend t-shirt. To think of this another way, wouldn’t it be a surprise if you walked into a Starbucks and saw a partner wearing a Shade Grown Mexico t-shirt with the coffee stamp image on one side, and then Conservation International mentioned on the other?
The t-shirt which says Starbucks V2V on the front side did NOT come from the box from the partner in Maryland. That t-shirt is my own and was given to me as a gift by an SSC partner in 2008. Starbucks launched a web page in 2008 called V2V. Unfortunately, the site appears almost totally inactive now, but it was a great idea as a way to connect with others in your own local community to coordinate volunteerism. One interesting thing about V2V was that it was designed so that every single Starbucks theoretically could have its own store web page. Sadly, very few partners ever volunteered their time to make the store page a lively place different from the default graphics. For an example of a V2V store page, click here. Also, the second t-shirt which came from my own collection is the black one with the word coffee written in numerous languages on the front side of it. That is a current t-shirt which can be purchased at the Starbucks partner store.
Somewhere, I think I have (or had?) a 2008 Pike Place Roast t-shirt in my collection. I have no idea where it is now. On my wish list for marketing materials or t-shirts would be Sorbetto stuff. I am nearly positive that there was a blue Starbucks Sorbetto t-shirt in Southern California where that wonderful delicious treat was launched. I would give my right arm for any old Sorbetto signage or a Sorbetto t-shirt. I’m so disappointed that never launched nationally, and never made it out of the testing phase. There had been a ton of buzz and excitement around it.
This is an open thread, so please feel free to talk about anything Starbucks related in the comments. Thank you to Molly of Seattle Custom Framing who assisted with the photography.
by Melody on August 27, 2010
by Melody on August 25, 2010
Today I visited the Starbucks headquarters for a little tasting of the new Galapagos Islands Coffee. This was a roasting event, which is a regular event at the headquarters. I have only rarely been to this kind of event, but some of you may remember a similar event that I attended in this blog post here:
The Tweet Up Event at the Starbucks Headquarters
At the roasting event, Starbucks corporate partners talk about the coffee that is being roasted during the event, and coffee is roasted freshly from a small oven and the sounds of beans popping are amplified throughout the Starbucks event meeting area. Partners taste the coffee being roasted up, and leave with a half-pound of beans (usually, but not always). Because the Galapagos Island coffee is so rare, and the supply is so limited, at this event the corporate partners only left with a small sample bag of the beans. I actually felt so guilty leaving with a half pound bag of the beans, knowing that there really wasn’t enough for all the corporate partners.
The gathering area for this event is a big open area with natural sunlight streaming in, and monitors in a few key places to make it easier to accommodate large groups. I wandered around the open area, running into a few familiar faces now and then, always accompanied by the person hosting me at the event. These roasting events, as far as I know, are not open to the general public. So far each and every time I’ve been lucky enough to be inside the headquarters, I’ve had a Starbucks corporate partner with me.
I heard some interesting information about Galapagos Island coffee that I thought I would pass on to you. The roast profile is fairly light. When it is pulled out of the coffee roasters, the second popping continues even in the cooling/collecting tray of the coffee roaster. I assume the roast profile is similar to Organic Shade Grown Mexico, though I don’t know that for a fact. Starbucks purchased about 400 bags of the Galapagos Island coffee, and each bag is roughly 50 kilos. In the pictures below, there are some photos of the beans as they came out of the coffee roaster at various roasting points … meaning at 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 9 minutes, and 11 minutes. I don’t think I have the minutes in the roaster coordinated exactly with the photos, but it is a nice progression to watch the browning of a bean. Also included below is a photo of the bag that the coffee beans came in green from Galapagos Island. After roasting, it will work out to be about 30,000 pounds of roasted beans.
The stores selected to sell this rare coffee all performed much higher than average in whole bean sales. Many of the stores selected sell close to 115 pounds of coffee per week, more than double the average store’s sales. All of the Clover Starbucks are receiving the Galapagos Island coffee too.
Enjoy the photos! (By the way, one of my favorite of the pics below is labeled “having fun” and is number 1474 and it’s a great spur of the moment pose by a partner who saw me pointing a camera at her).
Not too long ago I featured a blog entry with a picture of a partner in Texas, at work in his store. It was a great candid photo, and it made me think that there might be more of these kinds of photos out there. It’s always fun to look at pictures of smiley faces, and surely working at Starbucks produces some happy faces, and so I put out a call to gather such photos. This was easier said than done. The previous blog post was here:
