Over the past month, I've sat and read over various accounts of suggested racism, or perceived racism....within the Starbucks empire. So, my thoughts over this:
1. If you've been to as many Starbucks operations as I have....probably forty in my life (counting the airport operations, malls, and various street corners)....you've had a fair chance to notice the employees. Most are low-income minorities or college students. My guess is that those two groups make up 75-percent of the employees. The chief thing you notice is that you really don't have to be bright to make coffee. I'm not saying they are stupid, but if you had any remarkable level of clever nature, you wouldn't exactly make this a life-long career situation.
2. Pay level. If you work at most of the Starbucks operations (not NY City)....you get paid eight to eleven bucks. A manager? Somewhere between eleven and thirteen bucks. It's not bad but it's almost what you'd get flipping burgers.
3. Observing racism? Well....I've seen a lot of commentary at burger operations (unnamed) where the talk from the guys in the back....was in bad taste. But at Starbucks? No....you just don't hear that much in terms of chatty personnel, or people making bad taste comments. Oddly, I think that a majority of employees are women. Starbucks doesn't talk about the ratio, but I'd take a guess sixty percent of the employees are women.
4. Finally, if you had a pretty simple storefront, with only one single product...why would you do something stupid to suggest a racism angle? I'd be looking more at who I've hired, and if I'm making a mistake in the hiring process.
