Today (4-14-2010) I realized that the 2009 re-usable cup/tumblers data are available from Starbucks now. This topic is important enough to be its own blog post, even if just a few hundred words. What the 2009 numbers show is dismal improvement to get customers to understand that they have to STOP using a paper cup. STOP. I write this on the verge of tomorrow’s free coffee event at Starbucks (if you bring in your own tumbler). This is an effort to get people to stop using a paper cup. Let’s get to the facts:
In 2008, according to Starbucks Shared Planet Report, 1.3% of customers brought their own tumbler into a Starbucks.
In 2009, according to Starbucks Shared Planet Report, 1.5% of customers brought their own tumbler into a Starbucks.
That is dismal. I think that many consumers do not understand that recycling is NOT a panacea for our consumption problem on this planet. It’s a last ditch effort. It’s a tremendous amount of wasted energy as recyclables must be sorted, transported to a recycling plant, converted into something new, re-transported into our stream of commerce, and finally it will land in the hand of a consumer, possibly. This is not a solution. It may give the customer a false sense of “feel good” but it shifts responsibility away from the customer and onto the backs of the those industries that have to deal with recyclables.
The better answer, as Starbucks knows, is that the customer must bring in their own cup. It’s good for everyone. It’s good for the earth. It reduces consumption. Heck, it significantly reduces operating costs at a Starbucks. Starbucks uses BILLIONS of cups each year.
TOMORROW is free drip-brewed coffee day at Starbucks if you bring in your own tumbler.
We have so much work to do. So make tomorrow the start of your everyday habit to bring in your own tumbler.
And I’m definitely interested to hear how everyone’s free coffee day went!
Previous blog post with the 2008 Shared Planet Report data:
Commentary: Recyclable Cups and Starbucks
This is an OPEN THREAD. Feel free to comment on any Starbucks-related topic.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
If SBUX gave a bigger discount for bringing in your own tumbler or gave some really good reward, then more people would bring it in.
BTW,is there any type of problem like a chemical reaction if a hot drink is put into a plastic tumbler?
I agree that 10 cents off is a fairly marginal discount for bringing in your own tumbler, especially compared to many other coffee shops I see around town. Some give 50 cents off, charge a dollar for coffee, etc.
My baristas were aware of the event and it was not at all crowded. I was the only one in the store and when I was leaving a copuple was walking in…but no mugs (they usually get mistos). The baristas said they thought it would get busier later.
And Denise, no signage was going up for the event, it was all electronic and that makes sense if you think about I guess since it is about conservation efforts.
I stopped into a Starbucks near my work just now. The line was CRAZY long. It’s normally a busy Starbucks, but today I waited about 5 minutes just to get up to the pastry bar to get to a floating barista. Got to the register and was greeted by a barista who looks at my tall stainless steel recent tumbler and oatmeal and says, “so a Grande drip and an oatmeal.”
I replied it’s a “tall tumbler” because basically I want baristas to know this, because I’ve been over-charged a million times and not noticed it until I walked away from the store.
The barista says, “it doesn’t matter since it is free today in your own tumbler.” In my mind, it does matter because everything matters (“retail is in the detail”) but basically I mumbled “I know” and hurried off because I have to get to work.
I avoided Starbucks on the free pastry morning both times, to avoid crowds. Oh well.
On the plus side, I saw many people in line with their own tumblers, so maybe this will be the start of some great change in customer habits.
how did I comment in the other (older) thread? anyway, my point is/was that there’s been NO signage in any store around here about today’s event. I asked my regular store manager about it and he said: no, no signage….his impression was that it was just an online campaign….so to speak. ???
I’ve seen it on tv (national, on a show) and also in newspapers…..articles about it, not ads from Sbux. hmmmm.
I will find out soon how it’s going here. Unfortunately today is an extra-warm-for-this-date day here…..85 expected and hot winds. am thinking there will be alot of people going for their cold mixtures. ???
I love the promotion, and I love the video. Businesses react to customer demand. If we continue to use paper cups, Starbucks will continue to offer them. I understand that 10 cents may not seem a lot, but Starbucks has done research and found people didn’t really care about a discount of 25 or 50 cents either. We love the convenience.
Personally, I don’t think businesses should have to reward us for making environmentally smart decisions. We should do them because they are important.
@1yogagirl it is safe to put hot liquids into tumblers which are BPA-free. The chemical bisphenol A is used in hard plastics and epoxy resins. It was first used in the 1930’s as a synthetic estrogen. It is a hormone-disrupting chemical, which mimics or blocks hormones and disrupts the body’s normal functions. It can have deleterious health effects at extremely low exposure levels.
It is important to verify that your travel mug is BPA-free. Starbucks actually sells BPA-free tumblers that are also made out of 20% post-consumer recycled material.
Went this morning around 10:00 a.m. – about 8 people in line, three, maybe four, people had tumblers that I could see.
(I didn’t get the free coffee – had to have my dark cherry mocha – yum!).
MY SB just heard about the promotion this morning!!! We went early and were the only ones using a tumbler. While we were there only saw two people come in with tumblers. No signage in store. I also gave the barista the email so she can remember the code to use.
@Purple1 – Wait there was a code? And I didn’t get the email at all. It was pretty clear to me that the register barista wasn’t ringing anything through (I looked at my receipt) and the only thing on it was my oatmeal. On the plus side, despite a long line at my Starbucks, they were moving through the line pretty fast!
Just got home from my opening shift…fantastic day and super busy! Yes, there was a discount code that should have been used to account for each drip. There was very little confusion in my store about this promotion – the FAQ print-out from the portal was pretty clear about the details. No, there wasn’t any in-store signage, but the majority of the customers that came through today already knew about the promo from radio and facebook ads. We only surprised two or three customers that hadn’t heard about it…
@Melody-I agree, details DO matter. Customers (proven by what you write) appreciate details. It shows you care about your job and your customers.
I was talking about this w/ my husband last night (blog topic) and I was wondering how they actually track how many paper cups go out since they only detract the -10 for personal tumblers…not for china. We use a lot of china in our cafe, which makes for more dishes, but we don’t mind at all.
btw-starbucks tested the theory of offering a larger discount, it didn’t make a difference.
I think extending a better discount every day for people who bring in their own tumblers or mugs would be a very good idea. I don’t think 10 cents is quite enough.
Thanx Hayley for your logic! (hope you are still enjoying your Yirgacheffe…..it is a crying shame when you get to the end of it
When I went in today, in the afternoon, very NOT busy and I only saw maybe 2 tumblers come in while I was there for a bit. And, re: the code etc., my barista did ring up a (looked like a grande price…..even tho it was a tall?) but it was just a matter of tracking, she said. So, ??? (I wasn’t being charged)
I still feel the whole event would’ve been alot ‘bigger’ if more people knew about it….. just even to promote the use of your own tumbler…which was the idea anyway, right? So, I think: let people know, they bring in a tumbler……. bla bla bla.
My brother and I hopped in an S-Class and drove to one of our local Starbucks…he actually intended to go to Glendale, but got on the wrong onramp, so we went to one in Los Angeles. We asked the barista and he said it wasn’t busy at all, and he filled up our cups. He also entered a code ringing it up.
If your barista didnt enter a code, that may account for the “low participation rate” as referenced in your post.
We asked if the manager was there “for the big day” and she wasn’t (She is taking 6 classes to finish her B.A.) – and usually works M-W-F-Sat and some nights. But she did have to take off from classes for Free Pastry Day.
Maybe not increase the discount but maybe you could get an extra star?
Thanks Denise! I have about 1/3 of the bag left and am enjoying it very much!
Right on the mark about blueberries. When I brought it into Starbucks to have it ground, one of my favorite baristas, Barry, was there. As soon as he saw it, he immediately said I was the luckiest girl around…he hadn’t seen Yirgacheffe around here in ages. He had it a a couple years ago and loved it. We both smelled it after he had ground it and had a wonderful blueberries and cocoa aroma that was so unique.
I went down with two personal cups, i got my normal soy chai latter and a free bold coffee, my co-worker got a free iced tea.
I use my personal mug everyday, and didn’t notice a particularly longer line or people with mugs at the store.
I am glad to hear it seems to have gone better in other stores.
I actually made a point of telling people that they could actually save ten cents every day off of their beverage and a good 75% of customers had no idea that was ever an option. With lines always behind them there is no time to read the fine print and no labor for the barista to sit at the window and tell every customer. BTW about the grande thing, grande is our default size. If you hit Bold coffee it automatically rings as a grande. Hence in an effort to keep the line moving your barista most likely rang and discounted the default size to save labor and lower wait times for you. Also instead of walking to the register every time they saw somebody with a cup they most likely rang in a few at a time (for example instead of walking back and forth for somebody that just wants coffee they may take two or three orders and then when they have something less pressing going on they may walk to the register and go ahead and ring three in). With two people in a busy DT store at most times we have to conserve trips in as many ways as possible.
I have never, ever seen someone else in a Starbucks with a personal mug (and that’s from living in 3 different states and going daily). It makes me sad and I just don’t understand why people don’t use them. I get that many people go to Starbucks on a spur of the moment thing and don’t keep a tumbler in the car (like I do!)…but for the people that I saw every single morning? Come on.
Starbucks could offer a bigger discount, but I highly doubt that would make any huge difference or ‘convert’ new people. The reasons people don’t use them won’t change just because they get $ off. You can’t make people care (believe me, I’ve tried). But it would certainly make regular personal cup users happy
On anther note re: personal cups. On a site I’m on, this free coffee promo was discussed and almost everyone asked the same question: can we bring in non-Starbucks cups? That’s a HUGE thing that needs to be addressed in some way: bring a cup- ANY cup. I hate that people feel they may get turned away for not having a Starbucks branded mug!
I got an iced coffee for free with my personal tumbler on Thursday. I saw only one other gentleman with a reusable cup; I assume most people didn’t know or didn’t care about this promotion (which is unfortunate). On the other hand, I didn’t notice any unusually long lines in the busy store I visited, so that was nice. The barista at the register appeared to ring up the iced coffee, then entered a code, so the final price came up as $0.00.
I actually made a point of telling people that they could actually save ten cents every day off of their beverage and a good 75% of customers had no idea that was ever an option. With lines always behind them there is no time to read the fine print and no labor for the barista to sit at the window and tell every customer. BTW about the grande thing, grande is our default size. If you hit Bold coffee it automatically rings as a grande. Hence in an effort to keep the line moving your barista most likely rang and discounted the default size to save labor and lower wait times for you. Also instead of walking to the register every time they saw somebody with a cup they most likely rang in a few at a time (for example instead of walking back and forth for somebody that just wants coffee they may take two or three orders and then when they have something less pressing going on they may walk to the register and go ahead and ring three in). With two people in a busy DT store at most times we have to conserve trips in as many ways as possible.
Maybe they need a little (recycled paper, of course!) card to serve as an in-store FAQ about bringing your own cup? For example, what if you want a refill the same day – can you reuse your tumbler or do they only want to accept pristine-washed-from-your-kitchen ones? And, yes, how about non-Starbucks tumblers?
Hmmm.
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