Starbucks is “committed to reducing waste” you guys. So much so that you can buy a reusable plastic cup from them for $1.
I commend this action, but….
I’m confused why they are always insisting on plugging my drinks with these stupid drink plugs when I’m just going to take 2 steps, remove it, and, you know, DRINK MY COFFEE.
For some reason, all the Starbucks locations near my house (in the Dallas suburbs) will automatically put one of these in every hot drink, both in the drive-through and in the store (though one location near me seems to only put them in automatically in the drive through).
I know this may sound like something so small and trivial to get worked up over, but it makes me rage. I try to remember to bring my own mug, but I mostly forget. I try to remember to at least bring my own coffee sleeve, but sometimes I forget. The LEAST I can do is not get an extra piece of plastic plugged into my lid every time I order a drink.
I can understand the purpose of these things if, say, you’re picking up coffee for the office and you need to drive 10 cups of hot liquid back in your car. I have friends who say they like to have them in their drink when they’re driving to keep them warm between sips and to keep them from splattering if they hit a bump in the road. I’m not saying they shouldn’t exist, just WHY do you have to give it to me if I don’t ask for it?
Personally, I rarely ever get a drink from Starbucks that is not then consumed immediately after. I don’t know many people who do. It’s not a company policy, something to “protect from lawsuits” as some have suggested to me because they certainly don’t go dishing out little plastic sticks all willy nilly in places like Seattle (or so I’m told). I’m told in some of the more hip-to-saving-the-planet parts of the country you have to beg and plead your case for one of these.
But, ’round these parts I can’t order a latte at Target without them plugging it up… for the very dangerous walk with hot coffee through the store, I guess?
Oh sure, it’s just a little stick. I can ask them not to put it in. Except I sometimes forget, or when I remember it goes like this:
::over the noise of the steaming milk::
“Oh! Excuse me! … Yea- no… no, no stick please… The stick? Yeah… no… no please don-… ugh. Forget it.”
::confused face from barista as they stick the plug in my drink and ask me what I was saying::
I have to watch them like a hawk and catch them at just the right time to make my special request, which means I’m only part of the 1% of people who will actually do that, and all those “little” sticks getting plugged into thousands of cups every day and then get thrown away in trashcans 3 feet from where they originated.
RAWR.
I wish I could say this was the pregnancy hormones talking, but this has annoyed me to no end since they started doing this regularly around here about 9 months to a year ago.
Do they automatically put them in drinks at your locations?