look at me! I'm ripping off Starbucks!

I like my Starbucks, but being a homeschool mom, I almost always have my kids with me. And I feel really guilty ordering myself an expensive drink and not getting the kids anything. They have kids' drinks at Starbucks for $1 or so, which is a pretty good deal when we're out running errands in the summer heat. So, I've given in a time or nine and let them get chocolate milk. And at Starbucks, it's pretty much equal parts chocolate and milk, if my highly-sensitized taste buds are correct.

Let's just say I've created three redheaded Starbucks fanatics, much to my husband's chagrin.

Today, after Kirstyn's dental debacle (more on that later...), I let her choose somewhere to go for a summer afternoon treat. I said she could choose Sonic for a drink or ice cream, a frosty from Wendy's, or whatever. She's not a big fan of ice cream, so she said she would like a cherry coke at Sonic. We were headed there, but the traffic on the way was pretty bad because they're installing traffic lights. So, I spotted Starbucks nearby, and mentioned to Kirstyn that we could go there if she wanted. She gleefully exclaimed, "Ooh, Starbucks! Let's go there!"

Several times in recent years, I've ordered a grande or venti frappuccino blended creme split into two or three cups for the kids. It doesn't end up being any more expensive than getting them each a kids' drink. It's never been a problem before. In fact, everyone has been really nice about it in the past, filling the cups evenly and topping them off generously with whipped cream.

Which, I'm afraid, has made my three little fanatics into three big-time addicts. And there's not even any coffee involved yet.

Today, though, I cavalierly (is that a word?!) walked up to the counter and ordered two grande frappuccinos, each split into two cups, for the four of us to share. The exchange went something like this:

The girl taking my order replied, "Two talls are the same as a grande."

I clearly let her know that two of us wanted one flavor and two wanted the other, so it made perfect motherly sense to share.

She said something to the effect of, "Well, I can give you the drinks with extra cups to split them up yourself." Was it just my PMS, or was her tone a little... um... condescending?

I wasn't going to make a big deal about it, though. For all I cared, we could just get four straws and share out of the same cups. So we sat down at a table to wait for our glorified milkshakes.

When the drinks were ready, she put four cups on the counter with the drinks already split up. I thanked her, and started to pick up the cups when she stopped me, saying, "I want to explain something to you. Since a grande size is the same as two talls, some people come in and order the grande split just to rip us off. But when it's for kids, I'm OK with doing that."

Confused, but never losing my newly-acquired Southern graciousness, I think I thanked her again and took the drinks to the table. I decided to blow it off and enjoy sitting in Starbucks with my kids. So I did.

Now that I'm home, though, I've gotten to thinking about a few things...

• Did she not SEE my three redheaded kids picking up the biscotti and pointing at the gift cards and glaring at the case of cakes and cookies? She was just a kid herself, so she was probably immune to my children's irresistable cuteness. My point is: if she was really "OK with doing that," she could have saved face in the name of customer service by having that entire conversation IN HER HEAD, and just DOING IT, rather than making me feel like I was ethically suspect.
• Why does she care if someone wants to "rip off" Starbucks? And she said, "rip US off," like she takes it as a personal attack when she sees someone trying to save money in HER personal Starbucks establishment.
• Since when does Starbucks leave it to a teenager's discretion to decide whether to honor a customer's request to purchase two drinks instead of four? What is this?! Last time I checked, America's economy still functions on capitalism... where the customer is always right because it's better to have an $8 sale than no sale at all. Why play hardball to get an extra $4 out of one customer? I could have gotten offended and walked away without spending a dime. Was she going to refuse me service if I insisted on "ripping off" Starbucks like that?!
• Is Starbucks going to crumble into a pile of bankruptcy from missing out on the extra $1.70 a person spends when he/she decides to purchase two smaller beverages instead of splitting one larger one? They're already insanely overpriced anyway, especially since I just read an article last week that Starbucks is raising their prices an average of 9 cents per drink. One 16-oz. drink already costs more than a gallon of milk, or a gallon of premium unleaded gasoline. Starbucks' profit margin should more than make up the difference for us penny-pinchers. Wouldn't they rather have customers who COME BACK for repeat business?
• Is it any wonder I didn't leave anything in her TIPS jar? Did I mention that I'm PMSing? Based on that fact, I'm really proud of the restraint I showed in the face of such ridiculousness.

OK...I think I'm finished venting now. Thanks for listening. Or, you know, reading. What would YOU have said? WWJD?

Come back soon! I've got lots more posts in the works this week, including a really good Works-for-Me-Wednesday.

PS - in other random Starbucks babble ... In a drive-thru encounter at Starbucks earlier this summer, I tentatively ordered a shaken iced tea lemonade drink, which cost $2.80. The girl in the speaker asked if I'd ever tried their new blueberry white iced tea. I said no, I haven't, but I wondered if it was any good. With genuine heartfelt emotion oozing out of the speaker thingy, she said, "Oh yeah... it's really good." Her voice almost sounded husky as she said it. My eyebrows raised a little, but I cheerfully said, "All right, I'll give it a try." As I pulled up to the window to pay, I realized that the blueberry white tea was only $2.30. And I thought, she just DOWN-sold me! Convinced me to buy a drink that was 50 cents less than the one I originally chose, but I didn't say anything to her about it at the time. (I did enjoy the blueberry white iced tea, by the way, but probably not as much as the barista did.) Anyway, I hope she doesn't get in trouble for down-selling - if you think about it, it's kind of like ripping off Starbucks, from the inside.

Hmmm... I'd love to be a fly on the wall when those two girls work the same shift...