Conservatives Keep Protesting Starbucks by Giving the Company Money
You're really sticking it to a billion-dollar company by buying a $5 frappuccino.
Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump are mad at a brand. On Wednesday, a Twitter user posted a video of a Trump supporter who claimed a Starbucks barista was refusing to serve him a cup of coffee because of his political views. This was an outrage that the right would not stand for. So, for the second time in less than a year, they decided to protest Starbucks by walking into one of the multi-billion-dollar company’s thousands of locations and purchasing a $5 coffee beverage.
To use the alt-right’s favorite phrase, what a bunch of Starcucks, amirite?
The Friday after the alleged java discrimination, a Twitter user who goes by the handle @bakedalaska tweeted out “Operation #TrumpCup” instructions:
1) Go to Starbucks & tell them your name is Trump
2) If they refuse take video
Pls share & spread the word
Because Starbucks’s policy is for baristas to shout out the names on cups so customers can pick up their orders, #TrumpCup aims to force poor libertards into saying the name of their mortal enemy. Some Trump supporters followed orders — though searching the hashtag pulls up more pictures of people making fun of #TrumpCup, because it’s an incredibly ineffective protest.
This is not the first time conservatives have tried to protest Starbucks by giving the company money. Last holiday season, some people were disgusted that Starbucks was spitting in the face of Christianity by designing holiday cups that were just plain red. To get back at Starbucks, some customers said their name was “Merry Christmas,” in an effort to get the barista to say “Merry Christmas.”
This is a terrible way to protest something. It’s the literal opposite of boycotting. All it does is get way more attention than it deserves (guilty) and then it gets made fun of (also guilty).
For what it’s worth, @bakedalaska claims that #TrumpCup isn’t a protest.
“It’s a statement!” he tweeted. “Obviously it’s working!!”
It’s unclear what @bakedalaska means when he says “it’s working.”
Starbuck’s has gotten political before. The company’s CEO, Howard Schultz, is best described as a well-intentioned political putz. He’s the guy who wanted customers to engage in woke-ass conversations about race with baristas as part of a failed “Race Together” campaign.
Schultz publically endorsed Clinton, but tried to remain hopeful after the election.
“As Americans, we must honor the democratic process,” he wrote in an email to his employees. “We have a president-elect in Donald Trump, and it is our responsibility as citizens to give him the opportunity to govern well and bring our country together.”
What better way to bring a country together than with a grande doubleshot peppermint mocha?
