FAIR TRADE

Starbucks Challenge 4.0 | green LA girl

Starbucks says it’ll French-press a cup of fair trade coffee for any customer who specifically asks for a fair trade cup. During previous Challenges, Starbucks admitted it hasn’t quite lived up to this policy and promised to work on fixing its “break down in customer service.”

So during the month of May 2006, we’re asking activists to go visit their local Starbucks and see how easy it is to get a cup of fair trade coffee.

The Challenge
1) Visit your local Starbucks this month and ask: “Could I get a cup of fair trade coffee?”
2) Tell us what happened next. Ideally, the barista should immediately offer you a French-pressed cup of Cafe Estima — Starbucks’ only fair trade certified blend.
3) If your barista gives you a blank look, and you’re feeling courageous, try asking specifically for a French-press of the Cafe Estima blend. If the barista says it’ll cost you extra, say that HQ told you that you should be able to pay just for the size you asked for. And as always, be nice to the baristas :)

BLOGGERS: simply blog about what happened and tag it with “starbuckschallenge” (all one word) on del.icio.us (put the Starbucks location in the “extended” description). We’ll pull all articles into a feed. If you do not know about del.icio.us, then just email either City Hippy or green LA girl.

NON-BLOGGERS: tell us what happened by writing a comment on either City Hippy or green LA girl, or send an email to City Hippy or green LA girl, and we’ll do the rest.

Win a prize!
On June 1, City Hippy and green LA girl will award prizes: 1 to the person who takes the most challenges, 1 to the person with the most interesting, entertaining, educational, insightful, or funny report.

The prizes? An enviro-friendly, reusable, and chic workplace dish set (right, a $39 value!) will go to the person who takes the most challenges. A 2 lb bag of fair trade coffee from Just Coffee will go to the person with the most interesting report.

Challenge results
On June 1, City Hippy and green LA girl will contact Starbucks, either commending them on their progress on barista education efforts about fair trade, or asking them to, um, work on that.

Have a fair trade day.