Starbucks cardboard dumped in front of home
Normally, Magnolia resident Kitty Brown wouldn't have gotten that upset when she returned home on Thursday, March 6, and found about 20 assembled and broken-down boxes from the Magnolia Starbucks dumped on the sidewalk next her home in the 1900 block of 34th Ave. W.
But Brown had had a rough day at work, she said, and that prompted her to start making calls, one of which was to the News. The other call was to the customer-relations department at the coffee giant's SODO headquarters, the Magnolia mother said.
The Starbucks representative she talked to said he'd solve the problem as soon as possible, but Brown was wondering if the rogue dumping was happening elsewhere, she said.
Brown also complained that the Starbucks boxes were blocking the sidewalk, which made it impossible to pass for numerous neighborhood families with strollers, and a few in wheelchairs.
Starbucks has strict rules that prevent its employees from talking to the media. And citing that rule, a staffer at the Magnolia Village Starbucks declined to comment - even anonymously - on even a basic question about whether the store recycles its cardboard.
A woman from the company's media-relations division was equally tight-lipped, but said she'd make some calls. The spokeswoman hadn't called back as of the News deadline.
There was, however, a happy ending to the mysterious dump job. "A nice woman" from the Village Starbucks came by within three hours of Brown's initial call and cleaned up the mess, Brown said. "I would say they were excellently responsive," she added. "I would never have expected it that fast."
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