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<p>At all of the Starbucks I&#8217;d visited so far, I had posed as a normal customer. For the last two stores I was planning to visit, I decided to introduce myself as a reporter to see what would happen. Would anything change? Would employees (or &#8220;partners,&#8221; as Starbucks likes to call them because &#8220;employees&#8221; is now politically incorrect or something?&#8221;) be more, or less, willing to talk to me?</p>
<p>They all ran screaming.</p>
<p>At the first location I tried this, I started off by saying, &#8220;Hi, I&#8217;m a reporter and I&#8217;m doing a story on your race campaign. Got a second?&#8221;</p>
<p>The kid looked terrified. He couldn&#8217;t have been out of high school. &#8220;Uh&#8230;I&#8217;m not supposed to say anything to reporters or news people. Baristas don&#8217;t represent or are (sic) authorized spokesmen. Do you, uh, want a manager?&#8221;</p>
<p>So the baristas were trained not to say anything to reporters. The three baristas who had given me their opinions earlier, for the first piece I did on the subject had all been off the record. I&#8217;d caught them after they&#8217;d taken off their aprons and left the store. It probably helped that after finishing a shift they all hated Starbucks anyways. If this young man had something he wanted to say to me he couldn&#8217;t do it from behind the counter where a manager might hear.</p>
<p>On to the next location.</p>
<p>There, I got as far as, &#8220;Hi, I&#8217;m a reporter-&#8221; before a supervisor seemingly teleported in front of the barista I was talking to and cut me off.</p>
<p>&#8220;Okay, let me give you the number for media relations. They can discuss the race campaign with you, but no one in the stores is authorized to comment.&#8221;</p>
<p>Clearly, I was not the first reporter who had been in here. Since I was clearly not getting anywhere here, I moved on to the next Starbucks. Again, I approached the nearest employee and introduced myself as a reporter.</p>
<p>&#8220;What publication?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;My manager&#8217;s gonna wanna know.&#8221;</p>
<p>I told him that I&#8217;m the Editor of Punching Bag Post. He disappeared into a back room. I moved in, hoping to overhear what the manager might tell him.</p>
<p>I got up there just in time to hear the manager say, &#8220;Never heard of them, let me&#8230;&#8221; followed by the sound of typing.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hmm&#8230;&#8221; the manager said a few seconds later. &#8220;They&#8217;re conservatives. Yeah, if we try to talk to them they&#8217;re just going to shout us down and make fun of us. Send her to media relations; they can hang up on her if she&#8217;s getting nasty.&#8221;</p>
<p>I guess Starbucks only talks to those who share all their views.</p>