I miss River View Café but other good places, such as The Grind Cafe, serve lattes in Morganton, all with lovely coffee aromas, great service and friendly staff. I confess I’m hooked on Starbucks.
Here in western North Carolina, Starbucks has struck a deal with Ingles and set up shop inside their supermarkets. It’s a sweet marriage, convenient for customers who can grab coffee before shopping.
On two occasions last fall, I stopped by for my grande latte, and couldn’t get it. The ever-cheerful manager, Mary West, told me with sincere apologies, “The machine is down.” No hot drinks could be served. This meant I had to drive a quarter mile down the road to McDonalds for my latte. In my opinion, their cheaper hot beverage is not quite as tasty as Starbucks’ lattes.
Once, McDonalds even mistakenly pumped in vanilla flavoring. I didn’t realize this until almost home, so had to drive back for a re-do. Sheesh, the hassle of #firstworldproblems.
A month or so later, I walked into Ingles for my coffee fix, and was told, “We don’t have lids for grande or venti sized drinks today.” After some back and forth on why it would not work to pour a 16 oz. size drink (grande) into a 20 oz. (venti) cup with no lid, I wound up settling for a “tall” which is the smaller 12 oz. size. As a former Girl Scout, I’ve started carrying around in my purse a clean grande lid tucked inside a baggie.
A good environmentalist might bring her own cup, but in the past when I’ve tried this, the baristas used a second disposable cup for part of the process. So it’s the use of one disposable cup either way.
A few weeks later, the computerized cash register was “down” and Starbucks could accept cash only. I hadn’t brought any cash in because I have a keychain card I load with money to use.
The Ingles cash register they’d corralled for their use a few steps away at the self-checkout section wouldn’t work for accepting my Starbucks card. I wound up running back out to my car in the cold rain for my $3.90, even though the outstandingly nice baristas offered to give me the drink for free. Taylor Sain even said, “Really, it’s not a problem! I’ll pay for it if necessary!”
I couldn’t bear the idea of a young employee on her minimal salary paying for my drink or otherwise getting in trouble with the corporate overlords. Those young women and men stand on their feet all day and make dozens of different coffee drinks while remembering regular customers’ names, and have enough to put up with. One day I even saw a latex-gloved barista lifting slimy trash out of their garbage can and rebagging it. He was going through each item for a customer who was afraid she’d accidentally dropped a twenty dollar bill in the trash.
For a while there, some might have thought of Morganton’s franchise as our Third World Starbucks. (By the way, my progressive daughter says it’s more respectful to refer to poorer, post-colonial countries as “the global South” instead of Third World.)
That was months ago and Starbucks hasn’t had issues recently. It should be pointed out that they are open every single day: Monday thru Saturday from 6:00 am to 9:00 pm and Sundays 7:00 to 9:00 with no holiday except Christmas Day. That can be hard on equipment and supplies.
Past experiences make me appreciate more fully the luxury of a nice hot coffee drink, and also make me skeptical of huge corporate endeavors.
Wait just a minute. In my email, I see a notice from Starbucks about a forgotten and lost two-year-old gift card which had $14.34 left on it. I was able to go online to the company’s website and within a moment or two transfer that amount to the card I use all the time.
Let’s hear it for the corporate overlords. Yay for #firstworldperks! Or should I make that #globalnorthperks?
Gwen Veazey is a member of the Morganton Writers’ Group which celebrates its tenth anniversary writing for Burke County Notebook this month.
Gwen Veazey
