May 4, 2012
Romenesko
6 Comments

So *that’s* how you get Starbucks to call

I’m jealous, Mark Knoller!

Mark Knoller

Starbucks hasn’t talked to me ever since I posted Howard Schultz’s leaked this-place-has-gone-to-hell memo back in 2007.

Here’s how Knoller — the CBS Radio White House reporter who once made the front page of the Wall Street Journal — forced an apology out of Starbucks:

* May 1: 7:15 a.m. tweet: Memo to Tim Geithner: money signed by you as Secy of Treasury rejected at Starbucks nearest the WH.

* May 1: 7:16 a.m. Tried to pay for my $9.74 purchase at Starbucks this morning, but my $50 bill signed by Geithner was not accepted.

* May 1, 7:16 a.m.: The Federal Reserve Note, 2009 series, states it is “legal tender for all debts public and private.” But not at Starbucks.

* May 1, 7:18 a.m. Had to peal off ten singles to pay my bill. Is it possible Starbucks didn’t have 2 twenties in the register at 8AM? Nope.

* May 1, 7:50 a.m. Mrs Obama does an Obama Campaign fundraiser in Las Vegas this morning. Am certain they accept $50 bills.

Finally, Knoller gets Starbucks corporate office’s attention.

* May 3, 3:27 p.m. Just got a call from a Starbucks VP who says their store should have “absolutely” accepted my $50 bill the other day.

* May 3, 3:27 p.m. The Starbucks official was courteous and apologetic over the episode and said its employee should not have turned down my fifty.

* May 3, 3:28 p.m. Thanks for the call, Starbucks. Much appreciated.

Case closed — until his next bad Starbucks experience.

* Starbucks faces wrath of White House reporter (Fishbowl DC)

UPDATE:

Comments

comments

6 comments
  1. Bill Hogan said:

    Saw this happen in Seattle just yesterday. They sent the guy to a nearby hotel to try to get the bill changed. Manager gave some excuse about the location (South Lake Union, home of Amazon, and right next to a Whole Foods) and security or some such nonsense.

    Unlike Knoller, that guy won’t get an apology.

  2. Bill In Glens Falls said:

    What an idiot.

    Many places will not take $50 or $100 bills.

    Must be nice to have a $50 in your pocket. This reporter doesn’t.

    People are so fricking entitled.

    If that’s a work twitter, they should suspend him.

    Aren’t there more important things?

  3. Dan van Benthuysen said:

    Yeah. Seems like more than $50 worth of mean-spirited.

    Go ahead. Make my coffee.

  4. R Thomas Berner said:

    You could always tell when someone had gotten his cash out of an ATM because he plunked down twenties. I don’t even bother with ATMs because the of the bulk in my wallet. Instead, I go inside and get more money and all in fifties. Starbucks better get used to that. And all others.

  5. Vic said:

    The reporter should know better. I’ve never been a journalist, but worked at a paper, and had to read and sign an ethics policy document every year. He basically used his position to get something from Starbucks that he didn’t deserve. That text on the $50 doesn’t mean what he thinks it means (unless the Treasury Department is wrong http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Currency/Pages/legal-tender.aspx).

  6. Prefer to Remain Anonymous said:

    Mr. Knoller,

    You are, exactly, everything that is wrong with journalism. All of it, in one unctuous, sanctimonious, petty bundle.