Tuesday September 25, 8:04 pm Eastern Time
Starbucks Apologizes for Water Flap
Starbucks Apologizes for Charging NYC Rescue Workers for Water
By ALLISON LINN
AP Business Writer
SEATTLE (AP) -- The head of a Brooklyn ambulance company said Tuesday that the president of Starbucks has personally apologized after rescue workers in New York were forced to pay a Starbucks shop $130 for water to treat victims of the terrorist attack.

Midwood Ambulance Service President Al Rapisarda said he received a hand-delivered reimbursement check -- and a personal call from Starbucks president Orin Smith -- after reports of the incident became public.

``It was a misunderstanding with Starbucks,'' Rapisarda said after talking to Smith.

Midwood Ambulance Service alerted Starbucks to the incident in an e-mail, which was obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Smith said Tuesday he did not know why the coffee shop near the World Trade Center towers charged the rescue workers.

``It's totally inconsistent with the kind of behavior we would have expected from our people, so it has been very upsetting to learn of this,'' Smith said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 attack, rescue workers rushed into a nearby Starbucks store to get water to treat shock victims, Rapisarda said. Ambulance company workers said employees in the shop demanded they pay $130 for three cases of bottled water. The workers paid cash, out of their own pockets.

Reached by telephone, the manager of the shop, the Battery Park Plaza Starbucks, declined to comment.

Rapisarda said he was happy with Starbucks' conciliatory gestures, which Smith said included free coffee and other gifts.

``It's not a big deal anymore,'' Rapisarda said.

Starbucks closed stores nationwide for a day after the attacks, although the company said several stores near the World Trade Center and New York City hospitals served coffee -- and water -- to rescue workers for free.

He said the company also has donated coffee and other services throughout New York City since the attacks.

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The bastard deserves to be sifting through the rubble with his tongue....

[stick]

Notice the "gesture" came AFTER the incident was made public?  Greedy corporate slime...

I am impressed with the guys who paid for it, good for you!  I would have held the shop workers at "needle-point" and taken the damn water!

Another embarrassing Starbucks moment

Well, they are run by Dr. Evil after all. [:)]  I don't see why people still buy coffee from them.  They have shitty coffee.

God Bless Texas

We should hire that guy guy from EBAY to go give him an ass kicking.

"F**K Starbucks!"

I'll bet those employees got a reaming.  I'm assuming the employees were idiots right out of high school under strict orders not to give anything away.  

I don't drink coffee, but if I did, this wouldn't keep me from shopping there.

The gouging jerks who raised gas prices to $5.00 per gallon, and doubled hotel costs around major airports are another matter.

Doesn't surprise me, those folks on the store-level are on a pretty short leash, they can't make a decision unless someone above okays it.  There was no one was available to make such a high-level decision, and that was that.

I'm inclined to believe warlord's scenario. You know how those places are. However, any one with half a brain would understand the situation and realize you don't pull that crap during a civil emergency.

did you ever have one of those chocolate brownie frappucinos? damn, thos things are good.

Shoot they should of opened some hydrants, but then the city would have to pay forit. If Im crushed, burned, or blown up, I dont have to have Starbucks water, but I would insist on Osarka.
GG

Now do you all know why I hate starbucks?

If the paramedics went in wearing birkenstocks and cellphones glued to their ears they might have got the water for 1/2 price.

I made the mistake of volunteering to pick up a starfucks order for work and because I didn't even have so much as a pager, I was stared at like I had the plague. The FDCGH count? Hell it would have been easier to count the ones that weren't GHs!

For Christ's sake, man.  If these morons don't feel like they can risk their job to help some people injured in this disaster, I hope they never work anywhere else but behind that damn counter.

Suppose they DID get reprimanded.  Starbucks would still be in hot water, and they'd be heroes.  Dumbasses.

I never worked for Starbuck's or any of its competetors, but it is my speculation that the goals of the each district or whatever is fairly high, and if that district didn't meet its numbers heads will roll.  My gut feeling is that if the low-level employee probably don't reprimanded, they would have been fired had it gone the other way.  This organization is highly profit-oriented.  Only when they got the okay from the guy at top was it safe for the pions to give away the farm.
Is there any Starbuck's or former Starbuck's employee's that can shed more light on this?