Got an email last week from Dottie, the District Manager I’ve been dealing with to get the changing tables installed in my local Starbucks. She informed me that three locations near me should have them installed by the end of the week! So we took a little family trip up the road tonight to see the goodies in person. We all three marched in, camera in hand, back to the bathrooms.  To say there were eyebrows being raised is an understatement.  

I shouted in glee as I saw the little Koala Care sign, newly smooshed onto the wall, just a tad crooked, next to the bathroom doors.  However, my happy face quickly turned into a “Ugh, come ON. Are you kidding me?!” face when I discovered that there was only a changing table in the women’s restroom, and I confirmed with the barista that they had no intention of installing one in the men’s. Arrrghhhgghhh!!  Daddies do diapers, too!

Being the optimist I am, I decided to be happy, for the moment, for the one changing table, telling myself a guy could always commandeer the women’s room in the name of poopy diapers if need be.  I wiped my WTF face off, replaced it with the gleeful face, and Kendall and I struck a pose.  I’m fairly certain we were the very first ones to place a butt upon that changing table, but I’m positive we won’t be the last…. and that makes me happy.

I’m hoping to check out the rest of the locations next week, and will definitely be firing off some emails about why they can’t provide them in the men’s rooms, as well.  So… you know I’m going to ask. Have YOU contacted your local Starbucks District Manager to get changing tables installed in your local coffee house?

Kendall is 13 and a half months old and might have a crazy mom, but this crazy mom gets shit done.

In an effort to not bury the lead, let me just start by saying that two changing tables are on order and will be installed in my local Starbucks in approximately two weeks! How, you may ask, did I manage to move such mountains?  Let’s begin..

I’m a take charge kind of girl, in case you couldn’t tell.  If I don’t like something, I complain loudly and do what I can to change it.  Granted, since having a baby, I’m experiencing a bit more lag time, but now that our life is setting into some semblance of order, I’m on a mission to check things off of my to do list that I’ve kept running for the last year.  And, at the top?  Figure out just why the HELL Starbucks doesn’t provide changing tables in all their restrooms.  

Listen, if you are reading this and you don’t have a child in diapers, I don’t really expect you to understand the severity of this situation (and please, let’s not turn this into a childfree/parenting debate).  If you do understand, if you can put yourself in an exasperated new parent’s shoes, a parent who has relied on coffee to get them through many a late night project and now just wants to escape to Starbucks for a small window of time while their infant is sleeping, a parent who will need to change said infant before getting back in the 105 degree car, then thank you for your compassion and understanding.  

What I am saying is, yes, there may be bigger fish to fry in the blogosphere.  Yes, I can blog to end hunger or stop prostitution, but, seriously, this is IMPORTANT stuff to lots of parents.  I promise.  I’ve asked.  I’ve heard.  I’ve read the PAGES of comments on the MyStarbucksIdea.com website asking for simple changing tables to be the standard in all Starbucks locations.  For the record, this MyStarbucksIdea.com page is L-A-M-E, and I laugh at the Starbucks customer service phone rep who urged me to log my suggestion there.  I further laugh at one of the emails returned to me from Starbucks Customer Relations also urging me to do the same.  Uhmmm… hello.  It’s clearly been done several times.  I have better interwebz thingies to waste my time on, like Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter, that’s actually where I finally started to get somewhere with this whole situation.  I followed @Starbucks and (with the help of @JetWithAnya) asked them to put me in touch with the people who could hear me out.  After an email back from Starbucks Coroporate Communications that *didn’t* tell me to waste my time by entering it on the L-A-M-E webpage, I learned that I needed to contact my local District Manager. So the next time I was at my local store I grabbed her business card and shot her an email when I got home.  I explained my frustrations (and made it clear that I would be blogging and Tweeting about all of this, one way or the other).  To her credit, she has been extremely responsive and friendly, and after only two phone calls, put in an order for changing tables for my local store.

So.. it may not be Starbucks coming out as a company, being proactive and just sending two to every location without, but, for now, it’s a start.  And, I’m assured by Starbucks Corporate Communications and the District Manager I’ve been working with that it should be just as “easy” (relatively speaking, of course) for all of you to request changing tables and have them installed, too. Are you with me? Will you help?! Will you join the revolution??  Great. I knew you would. Now, let’s recap what you need to do.

1. Make sure your local Starbucks is, in fact, without changing facilities (as I have seen 2 or 3 locations out of hundreds that do provide them, but do proceed if they are only in the women’s restroom).

2. Ask for the District Manager’s contact info. There should be a business card set out somewhere obvious.  Mine only included an email address, but she was very prompt in responding.

3. Contact them and *nicely* explain your request.  Direct them to this post if you must.  Assure them that Corporate Communications has stated that customers merely need to request the changing tables via the DM.  

4. Follow up if they don’t.  And really, that would be a damn shame if you are the one having to do the follow up.  If that’s the case, I urge you to come back and post your experience in the comments section.  On that same note, PLEASE come back and post any positive experiences, as well.  Let’s give these folks the credit they deserve for working with us.

5. Spread the word.  Tell your friends and family to contact their DM and do the same.  Hopefully if enough of us are emailing, calling and hounding, they will get the picture and just send them out to all locations.

Let’s see how this goes!  Keep me posted.

Kendall is approaching 13 months