I would like to see how they can explain their policy that “No questions will be answered about the $5 Hot Chocolate.”

The espresso rule itself just strikes me as entertainingly odd, but I’m strangely disturbed by this inconsistency in the owner’s post. I think what bothers me is that “We’re happy to explain this” seems to have become an empty phrase, the equivalent of “I apologize if you were offended by my actions.” I’d rather that organizations admit when they are being opaque, rather than engage in this kind of faux-transparency.

I wonder if that’s a reflection (or a creation?) of our culture as well: we feel compelled to claim that our policies are rational and open to discussion, even when our actions demonstrate otherwise.

But I had to drop in here — this is the most intelligent, salient discussion of this issue I’ve seen anywhere, ever. I’m just letting comments roll past, just to stay sane. But this is really thought-provoking, and I’ll be referring to it soon.

Thanks for being the ONLY grownup to touch this thing,

Jeff

I’ve been following this story with morbid interest for the last two days. The value judgments implicit in the comments are, as you say, fascinating and revealing of how people want to see themselves as mavens of one viewpoint or another on coffee, corporations or conflict. And, as often happens on the internet, taking extreme umbrage over someone else’s perspective.

Me? I’ll order tea and to heck with all of this coffee chatter!

The original poster actually referenced “Five Easy Pieces” in his blog entry.

I think it’s the net amplifying, Alan. “Five Easy Pieces” precisely suggests that this kind of thing is an old issue. That scene is often quoted or viewed in isolation from the movie with some admiration for the Nicholson character; the scene is taken as a kind of rugged-individualist reply to mainstream conformism. Seen in the context of the movie, it’s a little more complicated, because the character’s antisocial and alienated perspective is costing him and his family a lot. Stepping back from it, I’ve got some sympathy for the customer’s anger (and admiration for his willingness to express it), some sympathy for the barista and the store’s belief in quality, and some notion that grown-up adults would resolve this in some other fashion. But I have to say that some of the vivid fun of life in the human world would drain out if we all behaved like Canadians in every aspect of our daily interactions.

All this raises another question for me, the by-now old chestnut about whether the internet or more specifically, the posts-and-comments region of the internet is generating higher levels of hostility or merely reflecting the hostility that’s already there. The store owner reveals himself to be a gigantic asshole, and there’s no way I would ever buy a packet of Sweet-n-Low from a guy like that, much less a cup of coffee but would he have been such a total jackass if the whole conflict had stayed in the store? Or was the net’s infamous amplification effect at work here?