Last night on the Late Show, host Stephen Colbert tried parse the ongoing customer service joke that is Starbucks' naming system. For anyone who has never been to Starbucks before (please email me, I want to meet you), here's how it works: Customers walk up to a cashier behind a register and place an order. The cashier then asks for the customer's name. Unless the name is Liz or Beth or Todd or Bob there's a good chance the barista will spell it incorrectly. Even if the customer is famous!
People like to complain about this — there is an endless stream of jokes about it on the internet — and Starbucks sheepishly admits its faults. But now that Starbucks is trying to fix the problem by asking customers to order ahead on its app, thereby giving baristas a customer's name in text form, "people are missing that nostalgic, artisanal, handmade name garbling of yore." Colbert jokes: "Starbucks greatest strength has always been being bad at names. This is the company that named their shortest drink... tall."
Finally, watch Colbert explain a far more important news story — using the magic of misspelled names on coffee cups.
