(This blog was
originally posted on May 3, 2016)
 | |
| Photo by Rick Hustead |
Someone is finally doing it. Someone is finally suing Starbucks® because the company “shorts”
advertised quantity of coffee in iced beverages compared to the ratio of ice.
O-kay, then.
The company argues that ice is supposed
to be in an iced beverage. Isn’t that implied—even explicitly stated—in the
names of the beverages like iced coffee, iced tea, iced-green-tea latte, etc.?
Even the Frappuccino beverages made with a lot of ice. Considering how many
units of iced beverages Starbucks® sells
each day, I doubt that the plaintiff in this case is the first person who
noticed the imbalanced of the coffee-to-ice ratio. Most people who order an
iced beverage simply pay and happily walk out of the store or take a seat along
the coffee bar and enjoy their drink, end of story. I wonder what inspired this
person to actually sue the company over this imbalance instead of simply ask
the barista to prepare the beverage with less or even no ice, or simply stop
buying coffee there in the first place?
Last year, one of my nephews introduced me to the word
“micro-aggression.” I remember laughing at the concept of micro-aggressions. I
didn’t laugh because I believe some complaints and perceived injustices are truly
funny or deserve to be dismissed out of hand, but because the word itself is
demeaning and yet so accurate. In the context of the many injustices (real or
perceived) that are occurring in the world, not receiving the advertised amount
of coffee in your iced beverage doesn’t seem like a big deal, or even that it
should be. Taking the company to court for a $5 million payday over this
imbalance is a bit extreme. And yet, it’s happening. My question is: how did
this and similar situations get so far?
A couple years ago I posted a blog titled Passive-Aggressive
Behavior in which I explained the origins of this behavior, which typically
begins during early-childhood. A youngster naturally starts to become more
independent from his caregivers between the ages of two and five. However, if
the adult does not provide options and opportunities for the child to
demonstrate the desired behavior, the youngster may adopt passive-aggressive
responses to these requests in order to display some kind of autonomy. Rather
than ask directly for something, the individual hints and insinuates that
something is wrong/must change until other people in the environment change
behavior to accommodate him. Over time, this strategy becomes a subconscious
known—a go-to behavior to get what the person wants. I can’t help but wonder if
passive-aggression is at the root of so many examples of micro-aggression we
are seeing lately.
There is a huge difference between assertiveness and
aggressiveness/passive-aggressiveness. In the first case, an assertive Starbucks® customer would immediately,
politely, tell the barista that there is too much ice in the beverage and ask
for it to be remade. (There is a sign on the counter of every Starbucks® that states the store’s policy
about re-making a drink to a customer’s satisfaction.) If the new drink still
wasn’t made to the person’s satisfaction, the person could ask for a refund and
stop going there for coffee. Maybe even a letter to the CEO would be in order.
Conversely, an aggressive customer might rudely complain about the drink, demand
the refund/reject apologies from the company, etc., and even stomp loudly off
the premises and tell everyone about the lousy experience. The passive-aggressive
customer may take the beverage as it was originally prepared and then complain
(loudly or discretely) about everything that is wrong with the drink. The final
step on this path would be to take the complaint to court.
I do not know all of the details about this customer’s lawsuit. Perhaps
the individual has made many attempts to change how the company prepares its
iced beverages and even had a one-on-one meeting with the CEO to vent
frustration about this perceived rip-off. But is this issue so important to
press legal charges, knowing that the cost of hiring a legal team to
defend/prosecute this injustice may become financially prohibitive? Sure, the
ultimate pay-day could be worth this effort—if and when it eventually comes.
The question I have about this issue is whether having a disproportionate ratio
of ice-to-coffee symbolic of another more personally
meaningful perceived imbalance in this person’s life.
Maybe it isn’t about the coffee, at all.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified
hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors
from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in 2005. For more
information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an
appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
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