When I look out of my kitchen window, I wonder if I’m witnessing union busting in full force.
I can see the neighborhood Starbucks from my kitchen window. It’s across the street, kitty-corner.
Starbucks is omnipresent in and around downtown Chicago. One day, I was strolling down State Street and there were three young women who had the lost look of tourists. As I got closer, the one in the middle said to me, “Excuse me, can you tell us where we can find Starbucks?” I said, “Well, there’s one in the bookstore across the street and there’s another one a block east of there and there’s another one a block north of here and if you go two blocks beyond that to Macy’s there’s two more in there and—”
“Thank you,” the one in the middle politely interrupted. “We’ll go across the street.”
Last year, the Starbucks that’s kitty-corner from me closed for remodeling. A few months later, it reopened with no fanfare that I noticed. There were no ribbon cuttings, no speeches, no giveaways, no colorful balloons. Two window panes facing the street were stenciled with the words “Pick Up.”
When the brown paper was removed from all the windows, it was evident that the remodel had been done in the style of “corporate sterile.” Where the seating area had once been was now a wall that looked like it was made of corrugated cardboard. There was a few feet of counter space, and behind it sat a solitary employee.
I wonder if this highly impersonal way of doing business appeals most to the Starbucks brass because it involves so few employees, at a time when their workers are trying to unionize.
Two of my friends went in and tried to order a drink the old fashioned way, by walking up to the counter and asking for one. They both told me that the employee within said this location no longer operated that way. The employee said that they would have to go online and join Starbucks Rewards, place an order at this location via the app, and then come pick it up.
When I called to ask if I could order a drink by phone, I was told the same thing.
A page on the Starbucks website says, “Introducing Starbucks Pickup” and “Order ahead, pick up and go. Sooo easy.” It adds that pick up locations are “rolling out” and it lists four currently in Chicago and several more throughout the country.
But I wonder if this highly impersonal way of doing business appeals most to the Starbucks brass because it involves so few employees, at a time when their workers are trying to unionize.
I tried to call Starbucks HQ to ask about this, but the number that I found online for their corporate offices was disconnected.
One of my friends who went into our newly-remodeled neighborhood Starbucks said he felt like the place had essentially been turned into a vending machine for coffee. Well, if Starbucks drinks were literally all dispensed by vending machines, that sounds like it would involve even fewer human employees. So maybe that’s what’s coming next.