Friday, October 17, 2008

Friday fare

In the "commerce imitates life" department, there was a strange sight this morning at Starbuck's downtown. Some of you may have seen the TV commercial where a worker in a sandwich shop orders a sandwich for delivery from one of their competitors. He meets the delivery person at the front door, feigns surprise, pays the driver and then has the sandwiched dropped on the side of the store.

In a similar vein, this morning at the corner Starbuck's, behind me in line stood a man wearing a crisp, black, corporate oxford dress shirt, emblazoned with the logo, "Seattle's Best Coffee". Their coffee is sold across the street. Maybe he was there to borrow some filters?

Back outside, walking down Olive past Macy's, lying on the sidewalk in front of one of the store's main entrances, I see a fresh copy of the Wall Street Journal. It looked like a home delivery, but instead was on a downtown sidewalk, in front of high rise department store. Okay, so maybe I'm a little strange, but these sorts of things make me wonder.

On the one hand, I guess it makes perfect sense that someone working in the store has a subscription to the WSJ. However, on the other hand, I'm a little surprised that not one person had simply bent down and picked the paper up off the sidewalk. The store doesn't open till around 10. The paper just sits there, with hundreds of people walking by, for a few hours in the morning. I'd say that's pretty cool.

We St. Louisans are an honest bunch! Or maybe no one reads the paper anymore?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Seattle's Best Coffee is owned by Starbucks (which has no apostrophe). The brands are distinct, but corporate folks might be wearing swag from SBC.