I like to support local businesses. So when Starbucks opened a drive-thru next to my favorite local coffee house several months ago, I vowed I would never drive-thru. I am not saying I am anti-Starbucks, because there are times when I meet friends there for coffee (even as much as once a week), but going to the one right next to the local coffee house just seemed wrong. Maybe it was the sign in the window of my local place that reads “friends don’t let friends go to Starbucks” that haunted me?
But now and then life throws a curve ball. Mine was receiving a Starbucks gift card and craving a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Now under most circumstances I would go to any of the six Starbucks within a three mile radius of my house, but this day I had my four children plus one and I felt the only way to get that Latte would be to go through that drive-thru I vowed I would never use. Oh man! What was I to do? I had the gift certificate, I had the craving and I had five kids?
I needed to rationalize this scenario. First, the gift certificate. Gift being the operative word. I would have been rude to turn down such a gift. My mother taught me to never complain when receiving a gift, always accept it graciously. Even if you don’t like it, you may exchange it later and in this case I could exchange it for coffee. Point one, rationalized. Point two, the Pumpkin Spice Latte, a seasonal favorite. Unfortunately, the local place did not make this latte yet, so there was no way I could satisfy my craving there. Point two rationalized.
Onto point three, five kids. Who in their right mind would bring such an entourage into Starbucks, when a drive-thru is available? Answer: only someone with a gift card large enough to treat a small army of children and my card certainly did not have that kind of balance. There was just enough for that Pumpkin Spice Latte and maybe an apple fritter, but certainly not the wants of five children. And besides that, herding five kids out of a car into an establishment just for a Latte is crazy! Point three, rationalized.
But somehow that bumper stuck in my mind… “friends don’t let friends go to Starbucks.” I had to stop this! I had no friends with me to prevent me from going into Starbucks, just kids begging me for cookies and decaf frappucinos. Then I had an idea! I could take the kids to the local coffee house for their snack and then I could go back to the Starbucks drive-thru and get my Pumpkin Spice Latte. I was a genius. I could patronize both places and appease my guilt over breaking my vow to never use that drive-thru.
As I drove up to the window at the local coffee house, I felt pleased at my solution. I was so pleased, I explained the situation to the server at the window. I explained how I had such a dilemma, because I had vowed never to use the Starbucks drive-thru after they so rudely put one in right next store to a local business, but I had this Starbucks gift certificate that I had to use and well, she could see I had five kids with me, and who in their right mind would bring five kids into a Starbucks? As I paused for a moment, she just looked at me as if she was wondering where I was going with this? Then I continued, so I made the decision to get the kids their after school snack here and then I could go use the gift certificate next store and I would not be a complete traitor, right? She just looked at me and smiled like I was crazy, but then she said in a whisper, its okay. And then to make myself feel better, I shrugged and pointed up to the sign behind her, “friends don’t let friends go to Starbucks” and then she looked back at me like maybe I wasn’t so crazy after all!
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