Has your Starbucks barista ever misspelled your name on your to-go cup? How about crossed off parts of the cup's safety warning to make it read, "Careful, you're extremely hot"? It's a not-uncommon tactic by employees of the coffee chain, judging by a 2013 Huffington Post round-up of examples. Now Starbucks is facing backlash based on what one mother called "inappropriate messages" from a "creepy barista."
Laura Roberts, a 19-year-old woman from England, received just such a cup recently, which her mother shared to public Facebook group "Shit London" with the commentary, "Creepy barista writing inappropriate messages on my daughter's coffee. Looks like son in-law material." The Telegraph rounded up some comments supporting the mother's anger, including one person who felt leaving the word "careful" uncovered makes the line feel more like a warning than a compliment.
A barista gave me this cup that says "Careful, you're extremely hot" with a very cute smile. Good morning u cutie pic.twitter.com/7knBviQxbV
— nic (@NicoleBatucan) November 3, 2015
In discussing the incident on its Facebook page, the gossip television show Loose Women has a perfect example of the twisted victim-blaming that society uses to perpetuate this kind of unwanted advance, asking "How good are you at taking compliments?" Five minutes with the Everyday Sexism Project, which "exists to catalogue instances of sexism experienced by women on a day to day basis," should make abundantly clear how terrifying and demoralizing it is for women to take "compliments" endlessly.
The Daily Mail tracked down the teenager in question, one Laura Roberts, who defended the barista's actions:
"'He's a lovely boy, I don't find it creepy and I didn't feel intimidated,' she said. 'I've got a fiance so sadly he's out of luck but I'm sure I'm not the only one he's done it for. He's a nice boy and he wouldn't have been trying to offend anyone. People should just take it as a joke and I want him to know that. He's very nice but sadly for him I'm taken.'"
Asked for comment on an official policy about baristas flirting with customers, Starbucks did not respond to Eater by press time. A company spokesperson did give a classic non-apology to The Daily Mail, though, saying, "We are sorry if anyone was offended by this."
Looking past the questionable legality of crossing off a safety warning, it's shocking that Starbucks doesn't take this behavior seriously enough to have a corporate policy about it. Street harassment is insidious and unavoidable for women, as evidenced by plenty of studies. It literally keeps women off certain types of public transportation. At this rate, it may cause women to shy away from Starbucks, too, even if some of them shrug off the actions of their baristas as harmless.
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