What I Learned This Week

I was going to skip What I Learned This Week since I had two other posts going up today, but because there are actually people out there who (gasp!) prepare their posts in advance and emailed me wanting to know where the carnival was, I have decided to throw something up here so you guys can link in.

And I actually did learn something this week that I wanted to blog about.  I learned that I love Starbucks more than ever. I always like to point out and commend extraordinary customer service since it isn’t always easy to find these days.

Yesterday my 3-year-old and I were at the mall, and is our custom, we stopped for our favorite Starbucks treats (chocolate milk for her and a mocha latte for moi).  It was a nice day, so she asked to sit outside.  Little did I know how fortunate that request would turn out to be.

We were sitting, drinking and chatting, when suddenly she needed to go to the potty.  I had been just mentally chastising myself for ordering the grande size (translation: medium, for the Starbucks-illiterate) rather than the tall (translation: small) when my daughter pushed against the table in an attempt to push her chair back and escape, but instead of pushing her chair back, she tipped the table forward, and before I knew what had happened, the remains of my mocha latte went tumbling to the ground.  The lid popped off and the contents went all over the sidewalk, and by some sort of divine intervention, NOT on me or my shopping bags or my gorgeous new fall handbag.

Now, see, if I’d ordered the tall mocha like I should have, my cup would have likely been empty by then, thus avoiding the catastrophe.  Or, I suppose, you could also look at the situation and deduce that providence prevented me from drinking the rest of my grande mocha.  And speaking of providence, how glad was I right then that we had decided to take our drinks outside?

Even so, I decided the polite thing to do was to inform the Starbucks staff inside of the mess we had left on the sidewalk.  Perhaps they’d want to hose it off.  Besides, we still needed the bathroom facilities.

So I gathered my things and walked my daughter inside to take care of her bidness, and on our way out, I informed the guy at the counter of our little debacle outside.  He assured me that it was no problem, and here’s the clincher.  He offered to make me another drink.

I declined, of course, as I’d already had plenty.  But I just want to say, GO STARBUCKS!  I love to patronize a retail establishment that goes above and beyond the call of duty to make its customers happy.

So what did YOU learn this week?