“We will never offer non-fat milk. It’s not who we are.”
~ Howard Schultz, Pour You Heart Into It

When I was in high school, it was just about the time that coffee houses were becoming popular with my generation. I would sometimes go with my friends, but for the most part, the coffee was terrible, and scene was primarily filled with ultra-hipsters who were so cool, their coolness would often spill over onto the street in front of the joint. I often found the experience off-putting, if not altogether nauseating.

In college, however, I discovered Starbucks - otherwise known as the “third place”. We would meet almost daily to have coffee, or hot chocolate in my case - and talk about our days, stresses, or even nothing at all. It is sort of funny looking back that I was shelling out $3 a cup for a hot drink, leaving a food budget that allowed for not much else than mac and cheese with frozen peas, but the experience was a priority at the time. I loved it and I looked forward to each time I would visit a Starbucks. Plus, at the time, I was lactose intolerant and Starbucks had soy milk at every single location - something no other coffee shop could compete with.

I loved the experience, the community, and the fact that too-cool hipsters wouldn’t be caught dead in there. It was instead filled with normal people who were looking for a nice place to unwind at the end of the day or get a good start to a new one. It was comfortable and I enjoyed so many parts of it - from the banter with the barista to the selections of HEAR Music.

Some would probably say I was downright evangelistic at this point in my life about Starbucks. I would seek them out whenever I traveled, try new products when they came out, and recommend the experience to everyone I knew. I would speak about how they were responsible as a corporation and really did good things in the world. I bought the stock. I even used Starbucks as a part time office when I was starting my company. It was fair to say I was hooked.

Then I started noticing changes. More and more blended cream drinks. Drive thru windows. Starbucks across the street from each other. At first this seemed like a dream come true. I could have my fix anytime, anywhere.

As Starbucks was getting bigger and more “corporate”, my life was becoming more and more hectic. I’ve noticed that as you gain more responsibility, you also gain an amazing ability to put your head down and just survive in this big bad world. As a result, even though Starbucks was changing all around me, I didn’t pay much attention to it because it represented a connection to a much mellower and slower-paced past. What Starbucks represented to me then was a comfort that I could always turn to no matter what was happening in real life, though the actual “experience” was resembling my perception of it less and less by the day.

Then one day my switch flipped and all I could notice was what had gone wrong with my once beloved corporate companion. They had drifted, and not just a little bit , but a lot - like, around the world a lot. Two-percent milk was now standard. Kids were ordering 1200-calorie Frappuccinos with their parents’ blessing. Bastardized faux-Egg Mc Muffins started showing up across the country. And most recently, the company discontinued the one last remaining hope for all of us concerned with health and well-being, organic milk. Not that it was really any good (see Kerry’s post here), but its importance was what it represented. If you didn’t want the gut-wrenching soybean juice (yes, I admit I did drink it for a long time), you could always turn to the trusty ultra-pasteurized organic milk being flown in from Europe. It was a symbol that you still believed in a real latté: made with whole milk, as it should be. It was the last remaining standout from a better and more authentic era. Now it’s been discontinued, and as a result, I’ve ceased giving Starbucks my business.

I made a pledge to myself that when my last Starbucks gift card ran out, I would call it quits and no longer give them my money. Today, when I Kerry and I returned from a grueling two days of being stranded in Chicago’s Midway Airport, I took the final plunge and emptied my gift card on a tall chai with a piece of zucchini bread and the new Jack Johnson CD. It was dirty, to say the least, but also sort of bittersweet. I had had so many good memories in their stores. So many conversations, and meetings, and times to myself. And now, it was over; all because Starbucks was more concerned with growth, earnings per share, and the “skinny” platform.

While I admit they are still a pretty responsible corporation - healthcare, fair trade wages, etc. - they have faltered in some very significant ways recently. Their milk, for example. Sure, it’s great that they switched to milk that doesn’t contain synthetic growth hormones, but don’t try to convince me conventionally-produced CAFO milk minus the hormones is anything like organic - even if it is UHT. Obviously those of us who are seeking out organic milk, even when it is not listed on the menu board and are paying an additional premium for it, are thinking a little beyond growth hormones. Why not give us the option? Starbucks knows we will pay for it. Why should we have to be limited to the company’s version of what is healthy or good for us?

Over the holidays I had a barista* in Sun Valley, Idaho, tell me that whole milk was “really unhealthy” and “disgusting” and that “no one ever orders whole milk anymore”. Good thing I was looking for a dietician at the time. The $4 for my latté was cheaper than going to a real doctor. She saved me the hassle.

Beyond their milk, take a look at the food selection in a Starbucks store. It has never been good, but it has become downright awful in the past couple of years. I always used to rant about how cool it would be if Starbucks and Whole Foods would just partner up so they could deliver good eats to people all over the globe. Imagine being stuck in the airport and instead of paying $10.95 for a chemical-laden sandwich, you could actually find something decent to eat.

Even their stores have suffered a rapid departure from what Howard Schultz calls the “Starbucks Experience”. There are automatic coffee machines, tons of useless junk strewn across the retail shelves, and a chemical smell oozing from the ovens of the above mentioned bastard McMuffins. It is no longer a place you want to sit down with an old friend and catch up.

Imagine what Starbucks could have been. What if they woke up one day and said, you know what, we have more locations than anyone in the world, we are the only retail coffee company that makes any money, and we are going to change the world by changing ourselves. What if they decided to offer only organic milk? What would the impact be on the dairy world? There is no reason it can’t be done. Whole Foods decided one day it would support people in areas of poverty, and it did. Why couldn’t Starbucks do something like this?

I’m sorry old friend, but you have lost me. I tried (really, I did) to hang on, but I can’t go where you are headed. Instead I am looking at those of your competitors that are making an effort to do it right. Like Flying Goat Coffee, my new local coffee shop that recently switched to all organic dairy. You literally can’t order anything else. They even serve local raw honey and use washable utensils instead of wooden or plastic stir sticks. Plus, their food is baked locally and is actually edible. It is reminiscent of the experience I used to have with you. In fact, I am enjoying the opportunity to once again go off the beaten path and discover the coffee house magic that you and I once shared. When I travel now, I will take the extra time to find somewhere that does it right, and when all else fails, I will head over to a Whole Foods where I can get a cup of Allegro made with - wait for it… organic milk. My only rule is tat I will not go to Peet’s, because they suck too. That’s right, I said it. Peet’s sucks. If I wanted charcoal water, I could purchase briquettes and brew them at home. And what kind of coffee house only stays open until 6pm? A stupid one.

I digress.

My hope for you, Starbucks, is that you find your way back. You could change the world in so many ways. Now is your opportunity to do the right thing and get back on track. Forget what Wall Street says; what do they know, anyway? Have they ever steered a company in the right direction? Focus on what you know to be right, and focus on serving the customers who got you to this point in the first place. This doesn’t mean only wealthy people, either. I had no money when I was at my most loyal point. Bring back the experience. Serve real food and drinks and do it in a way that makes people feel welcome again. Then, just maybe, you will have me back. Until then… you are dead to me.

*Editor’s note: That very same barista in Sun Valley also said that Howard Schultz never said the quote at the top of this post. Bite it, babe.