An elderly woman was thrown out of a Glen Ellyn, Il, Starbucks after buying a cup of coffee there. The management apologized. She says they thought she was homeless. Um, so, homeless people don't get to stay in the store and drink the coffee they buy?
"People shouldn't be told to leave after buying a cup of coffee," she said. "No one should be humiliated like that…"
Instead of sitting alone, she went to sit with a homeless man she knew from the Welcome Center.
The man immediately told her he wasn't staying – that he had been told to leave.
Kilborn was trying to ask the man why he had to go when a Starbucks employee tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to leave.
(via Starbucks Gossip)
Update:
Patrick sez, "I just wanted it to be known that the actions of that particular store and its employees are not practiced by all Starbucks stores. I don't intend to defend the company as a whole, or even pretend to like it. But I do work for it, and it has been my most enjoyable job yet. The store in which I work is located in a tourist-saturated, high class, and all around depressing locale. However, everyday we are visited by a gentleman who we know to be homeless, and we are glad to have him. We give him all the free coffee he can drink, and bag up the morning pastries for him to take back for his friends on the beach where he apparently lives. We even keep his special mug in the back, and wash it when he's finished. He tips us what he can. We all know him by name, and he knows us by name.
The thing to understand is that each store is run very differently, depending on the crew, and more so on the manager. We've got the best of both. I don't love Starbucks, but I do love my store."
