City Hippy

The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life.

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We are dedicated to exploring how to live a greener and more ethical life. City Hippy is a growing collective of writers bringing you two types of content:

ARTICLES: Enjoy real content by real people trying really hard to live a greener and fairer life. Generally in-depth with weekly updates at least. Located in main body below.Subscribe:
 
BOOKMARKS: Follow our web travels & explore our 1400+ links to a greener life across various categories i.e. baby, cosmetics, DIY, furniture, garden & shopping. Short, sharp and frequent updates. Located down to the right. Click here to see our latest three bookmarks.Subscribe:

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Monday, May 01, 2006

FEATURE: Starbucks Challenge 4.0

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 and 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.

City Hippy and green LA girl

Useful posts:
The Launch, 2.0, 3.0, Activism 2.0 (analysis of new wave of consumer activism), FAQ, challenges (del.icio.us) and finally the ever developing Google Map.

FEED (del.icio.us/starbuckschallenge):



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1 Comments:

At 8:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My name is Jonathan and I am a college student at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. I went to one of the Starbucks near my school (2001 Plank Road
Fredericksburg VA, 22401 United States) and asked for a 12 oz. cup of fair trade coffee and was told that they were not brewing fair trade coffee that week. The barista, however, was more than happy to french press a cup of fair trade for me. This took five minutes, but it was well worth it. (In the end the barista gave me a 20 oz cup for 12 oz price so as to avoid wasting the coffee that she pressed.)

 

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