March 2011

Starbucks News Round-Up

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Step Away From The Tip Jar And No One Gets Hurt
Starbucks has been slapped with a "wrongful death" lawsuit by the family of a man who was injured while trying to chase down a tip jar thief.

In a St. Louis Starbucks in 2008, a 19 year-old Georgia man named Aaron Poisson swiped the tip jar and ran away. Another customer, Roger Kreutz, chased after Poisson. Kreutz later died of the injuries he received in his altercation with Poisson. Kreutz's family is accusing Starbucks of not doing enough to protect their tip jars from theft.

The bigger lesson here being: just let the dude run with it. Bank tellers don't run after thieves, and neither should you.

Experiments for National Caffeine Awareness Month

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We’ve all heard about the many negative effects—as well as some positive ones—that caffeine has, and I think we could all probably agree that the key to drinking (or eating, as the case may be) caffeinated products is the same key we need to use with many other ambivalent products—moderation. So instead of shaming ourselves for our daily caffeine fix, why not just take the month to look at the caffeine we do ingest, see how it affects us (if at all), and maybe even try out a few new products.

-Try monitoring your caffeine intake. How much do you have each day? Is it too much, or just right? Keep a log for a week just to see how much you usually consume. Is it expensive? Could you do without it? How much do you enjoy it to begin with—and is it for enjoyment or because you perceive it as a necessity?