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Businesses should keep messages to themselves
Paul Sassone
Updated: January 16, 2013 2:56PM
I probably should have been annoyed by this sooner.
But you know how it is. You tend to fall behind during the holidays.
What I was, and am, annoyed about this time is Starbucks ordering its employees to write political messages on the cups of coffee customers purchase.
Oh, the message was inoffensive enough — this time. It urged lawmakers to “Come together’’ on solving the then-looming fiscal cliff.
But now that a precedent has been set, what’s next?
Will Starbucks — or some other merchant — tell us for whom we should vote by writing the name of a candidate on its product?
Will they attack politicians they don’t like — “He believes in evolution and thus is against religion.’’
Or maybe they’ll start writing anti-competitor slogans on their products — “Drink Pepsi; Hitler loved Coke.’’
Well, if they won’t leave us alone even to sip a cup of coffee, perhaps we ought to fight back.
Perhaps we, too, should start sending some messages.
We can write, too.
“My eggs were runny,’’ we might write on the bill we give the restaurant cashier.
“Lower your rates,’’ we could write on the check to the electric company.
There are so many messages we could send to businesses and merchants:
“How come your ice cream looks like a pint, costs like a pint, but only is 14.5 ounces?’’
“Your interest rates are usurious. In the Middle Ages, you would have been burned at the stake.’’
“How do you call yourself an insurance company when you won’t pay for anything?’’
I realize some of these sentiments are a bit long to write on a dollar bill, or even on a check. But turnabout is fair play.
problem is ...
The real difficulty with this scheme is that fewer and fewer people actually pay for anything these days with money or even checks.
People charge everything. I wait in line at convenience stores and watch people charge a cup of coffee or a can of soda.
We could, I suppose, carry around little notebooks. When we want to send a message we could write it in our little notebook, tear out the message and hand it to designated recipient.
Or, better still, I won’t send you a message if you won’t send me one.
Deal?
