Thursday, March 15, 2007

National Coffee Break Day

My husband says that once I find out there is something free somewhere, I become possessed. Today, I heard that Starbuck's was giving free cups of coffee between 10 am - Noon in honor of National Coffee Break Day. Needless to say, I planned my morning errands around a stop for my free coffee. I arrived about 10 am, and there was a line out the door, probably the same line at that time on most days. The manager was offering free cups of coffee to people in line; surprisingly 50% of the people refused it and waited to get another beverage. That was surprising for me, as they were getting coffee, and this was free??? They had samples of the low-fat cinnamon coffee cake my daughter loves. The staff was smiling, friendly and welcoming. I grabbed a big bag of "Grounds for my Garden" on the way out as I am going to start doing a composting pile.
The premise is that people are over-scheduled, and need a break for their second cup of coffee late in the morning. According to the news on the Starbuck's website, the goal was to introduce people to the new mobile Starbuck's locator feature on your cellphone. "Travelers far from home can simply send a text message with the local ZIP code to “697289” (MYSBUX) and receive up to three locations for Starbucks stores in their vicinity. "