Boy, Andy really unleashed the inner demons of the Starbucks faithful with his “Juicy Raspberry” letter. There is the most hilarious thread going on at the Starbucks Gossip blog about whether is its, in fact, ok to serve “Juicy Raspberry” to customers before June 26th, and whether Andy is, in fact, too long-winded. It seems that Starbucks people are pretty long-winded themselves.

Highlights inside.

You know I think it’s extremely shitty of that lady from corporate to send that customer that letter, when we got a memo SPECIFICALLY telling us NOT to use the Juicy Raspberry until promo launch! That makes all the store partners look bad when they were just doing what they were told to do.

Everyone keeps saying it’s about “uplifting people” and “who cares, just say yes!” You guys, we are a corporation…ok? I think that internal audits, people losing jobs, and mess-ups in inventory are a lot more important than giving someone their raspberry. If someone told you that either you can lose your job and sell them raspberry, or tell them to wait, what would you choose?

Companies set up regulations to be followed. I know how some rules are “meant to be broken”, but I don’t see anything wrong with this. Overall, waiting till the 25th is the best decision, and if the heads of a corporation had hundreds of people think of this beforehand, then I will trust their judgment.

If a customer asked me to sell them juicy raspberry, I would probably say no. I would explain the launch date, offer alternatives, even offer a comparable drink for free, and try to connect.

Why can’t I walk into Best Buy and DEMAND a new Xbox, two days before the release date? After all, I know they have it in stock. Disclaimer…I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about any Xbox, but is it not a fair analogy?

we ran out of raspberry a month or so ago. so did all the stores around us. one of our daily regulars loves the raspberry so much and our store so much, when he was in a store that did have the raspberry, he bought himself 2 bottles of the stuff(that’s all they would sell him). it sits in the cupboard under the bar with his name on it and we only serve it to him.
we also had him try the juicy raspberry and he hates it.
we know he’s a freak, he knows he’s a freak. but he’s our freak and we love him. plus, he’s all proactive about it and not whiny.

Let me be sure I hear this right. There are folks here that are willing to ignore a release date?

Please reconsider. I enjoy making my customers’ day as much as anyone, but not by preselling something. Sure, it’s “just syrup”, but if you will say yes to that, I can’t see why you would say no to anything else.

Thank you Herman! It’s not about saying no about a syrup….but if saying yes then where is the stopping point the next time a customer asks for something early… there has to be a stopping point or promo launches don’t become special anymore. But I still think the writer is a cry baby!

This should be a non-issue. If it is between losing a customer and doing things in a rigid fashion, just make the customer happy. How much money do you think this guy spent at Starbucks everyday over the years? Let’s see – Iced Venti Mocha plus soy and another syrup? That’s almost $5 there, more in some areas. Now, how many times a day did he visit? 2 to 3 times? Now multiply that over the years. This guy is the customer we want to keep, the customer who is invested in our culture and the partners in his home store.

Starbucks, you’re so funny! We thought we posted something nice about Starbucks sending one of their loyal customers a gift card. Let’s all hug!—MEGHANN MARCO

I can hear the people at Starbucks saying: “Just send them a gift card and pray they never contact us again” [Starbucks Gossip]
(Photo: swruler9284)

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