Page 110 - The Starbucks Experience

Surprise and Delight

ping and delivery of the machine, but worked through her
store manager, customers, and other Starbucks partners to
provide twice-monthly shipments of free coffee to Bagram,
Afghanistan.
As Amy explains, “My job was to keep the supplies com-
ing. It started with me telling a couple of regular customers
about it, and they wanted to get involved. Later, I decorated a
jar and got permission from my manager to put it on the
pickup counter. Customers would put $20 bills in there; I was
shocked. We collected about $450 in donations. One customer
told me how important it was to remind our soldiers we were
thinking of them. He and his kids made Christmas boxes and
sent them to Afghanistan. We also supplied the soldiers with
paper logo cups so it would have a real ‘Starbucky’ feel.”
As luck would have it, one member of Sergeant Matthews’s
unit was actually a former Starbucks barista. Matthews and 95
company opened a thriving makeshift Starbucks-like coffee
shop at their base near the flight line. Sergeant Matthews
comments, “You needed a special pass to travel into our
vicinity, but people would come in with pass holders just to
have our version of the Starbucks Experience.” A Web site
created for family members back home showed images of the
coffee shop near the flight line, with a large Starbucks ban-
ner flying overhead.
When the media happened upon the Web site, military legal
officials encouraged Matthews to consider shutting down the
coffee operation for fear that it would violate Starbucks copy-
right protections. In the nick of time, David Silldorff, Military/
Government program manager for Starbucks, contacted
Sergeant Matthews and supported the use of the Starbucks
name at its unofficial Afghan location. Then David asked a
magical question in the world of surprise and delight: “Is there