No smoking on the Starbucks patio? Screw that!

A Starbucks gossip reader took this shot at a Kentucky Starbucks. Yes, that's a barista (on the right) with a cigarette near the NO SMOKING sign.

Comments

[Herman]

Stop crying wolf without a lot more information. Who owns and/or controls the space under their feet?

Clearly, local law would override Starbucks decrees from on high.

In Florida, many stores don't have no smoking signs since the state constitution prohibits it. Maybe in Kentucky, it is at the store's discretion and the signs are for inside the store.

[Sheik]

Proof that Starbucks did this no smoking thing only to gain publicity.

They can say they'll ban shit til the cows come home but it's impossible to enforce it...

[Bob]

Let's stop focusing on the poor baristas, instead, let's focus on the district managers and area managers who regularly smoke outside of my store within 5 feet of the door entrance. There's your story! Leave the hourly employees alone. For Christ sakes!

[Crateish]

That's the essence of every experience I've ever had in Kentucky.

[just another partner]

we just ask people to step out into the parking lot to smoke and then they can come right back to enjoy their drink and hang out. it has been SO NICE not to have to pick up a million cigarette butts every day! we picked up butts twice a day every day and still got a point knocked off when qasa came around because they look for that specifically. our patio looks so much classier without the butts and ash trays. :)

[Coffeelvr]

They are still smoking right outside the door at my local Starbucks in Central PA. Customers are...I haven't seen any workers do it.

[Regina]

After thirteen years of spending roughly $10 per day at Starbucks my husband and I are done! Non smokers have the entire interior world, you can't give me a corner of the patio so I can enjoy my coffee and book with a smoke?

The final straw, however, was that they refused to refund the $100 I has put on my card the day before the announcrment! Screw you Starbucks! You are NOT the only coffee shop out there.

[beyonce]

^ LOL why do people load obscene amounts of money onto their starbucks card at once?

[Regina]

$100 "obscene"? Obviously you haven't checked Starbucks prices lately! It used to go shockingly fast. That's ok. I'm saving that money now.

[Sean]

I wouldn't have refunded it either. The money on the card is for drinks, not for the cigarettes you won't be able to smoke on their property.

[Bob O.]

I USED to spend about $600-$700 annually on Starbucks until this ban.

Starbucks has their choice, good for you implementing a no-smoking rule!

I, However, have my choices as well. No more $600-700 annually just from me alone. I have $3.00 left in my Gold Card available and when that's done (which is less than 1 drink), I'm outta there.

[RoccoS]

If I can buy cigarettes legally and pay tax why I can not smoke my cigarette? If they are harmful for people why Government not prohibits selling the cigarettes? According to some studies the coffee is harmful for people health, too. If Starbucks care about customers health why they selling coffee, anyway? What a double standard and hypocrisy! Characteristic for plastic brainwashed Liberals. Maybe we poor primitives deserve this humiliation ... but we still have a power

[Traci]

Thrilled that Starbucks bans smoking; they will surely get more business that way, even discounting the whiny smokers who feel its their right to pollute their lungs and everyone else's too.

[william]

I find this new policy quite irritating. I have two cigarettes per day, one of which I enjoy while drinking my coffee. I guess I will be buying it elsewhere.