Weekly Hot Takes: For the Love of Starbucks

Sometimes you just happen to see things on your everyday tasks, read about something newsworthy (or not) and you have opinions on them. Opinions that you feel the need to share because why not? Because, sometimes, just having the thoughts in your head is not enough. You want to be heard and hear what other people have to say.

Or maybe just have people, agree. Whatever.

In any case, that's what I thought I'd do here. Because I have Thoughts and I want to share them. Welcome to Weekly Hot Takes where I talk about recent (and also not so recent) news and events and give some quick opinions on them as only a Millennial can.

What's on the agenda for this week, you ask? Well...

There's Something About Starbucks
Unless you've been living under a rock, in a cave or out in the mountains, you've heard about the Starbucks incident in Philly a few weeks ago where a manager called the police on two black patrons within two minutes of them being there. That is not what I have an opinion on, however. (Well I do, but alas this is a marketing blog.) After the incident, Starbucks had to go into crisis management mode in dealing with the manager who made the wrong call and trying to figure out how they could address what happened. Even more importantly, they needed to prove to their consumer base that they care about avoiding another incident and that the actions taken by the manager did not fit the company's values. Cue the decision to shut down for half a day later this month for employee anti-bias training.

Whatever you feel about Starbucks or the situation, it's a smart move. Starbucks isn't just putting out a PR statement that they "don't condone racism, etc., etc. insert some nice-sounding platitudes here", they're also taking actions. Could these actions have been taken before two innocent men were arrested for no good reason? Sure, there's no denying that. But if you've been on their Facebook page when the announcements of the training day was made, you might have seen some of their responses to people who are actually complaining about the part-day shut down. Starbucks wants everyone to know that they're not down with racism. As of right now, their actions match, and hopefully they'll be doing further integrations with new staff.

It's All About Mahogany, Baby
I was doing some googling a couple of weeks ago and I found an interesting article by the NYT on the Hallmark offshoot brand Mahogany. I thought it was interesting because as a black woman, I know that when I go card shopping, that's the section I stop in. Why? Because I want to give whoever I'm giving a card to (usually my family) one that looks like us. I'm not finding that anywhere else but with Mahogany. There's also the language of the card to take into account. I want my cards to have a certain voice, and most cards in the aisle aren't doing it for me if they don't say Mahogany on the back.

Please believe the card I bought my sister for her birthday this year was Mahogany.

Which is the point of the brand, as the article went to point out. I could paraphrase it some more, but it really is a great article about developing a line that caters to a specific niche demographic and doing it right. Read the article here: What Makes a Greeting Card Black?

For the Queen of My Heart
I don't know about you, but nothing makes me want to crank up Boyz II Men's "A Song For Mama" like knowing Mother's Day is around the corner (aka tomorrow). There's just something about the day, okay?

Now Mother's Day is very much a big commercial holiday (and yes there is a huge chance my mom's card is also coming from Mahogany), the same as all the others. Of course, a lot of people go all out and do and buy lavish things for their mothers on that specific day, which some would say are things that should be done year-round. And I agree. Somewhat. I do like to do things for my mother all year, but I also like to make Mother's Day a special time to spoil her and get her something she probably wouldn't get herself. I also use it as a time to reflect on being grateful for having her.

So, yeah, I do buy in to the special deals of gifts for mom and find myself internet shopping for ideas on things she might like. I've got room in my life to indulge in two big commercial holidays. Mother's Day is just always going to be one of them.

What did you notice or have thoughts on this week? Comment below.