Awareness raising success at Starbucks

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Sarah and her scrolls for Starbucks

Sarah Ellison tells us how it went this International Stammering Awareness Day when she handed in our awareness-raising letter to Starbucks. 

Hi, my name is Sarah and I'm speech and language therapist. It's currently International Stammering Awareness Day 2024  (22nd Oct) and I wanted to tell you about how I happened to have goosebumps coming out of Starbucks this morning. 

I went to hand in STAMMA's letter to Starbucks - part of their campaign urging coffee shops to make ordering a drink more inclusive for people who stammer. I printed it off, twice, rolled each one into a little scroll and wrote 'International Stammering Awareness Day...' on it to jazz them up a bit (see the picture). 

I thought I'd go to two local Starbucks local branches. At the first one, I walked in and stood there for probably a minute and a half before any staff member engaged with me, which, as a therapist I found fascinating, from a communication point of view. Then a girl came to the counter. I asked if I could speak to whoever was in charge and she said I could speak to her as she was a supervisor. I was like, right, OK, so I explained what the day was, that I was a speech and language therapist, and asked if I could leave this information for somebody, because we're trying to engage with someone from Starbucks to raise awareness of stammering. She said, "Yes, that's fine. My area manager is in the back today but she's on a call at the moment so I'll give it to her later". I thanked her and saw her just kind of cast it to the side of the till before carrying on working. 

I explained that STAMMA was trying to raise awareness that just saying your name, particularly when there's a queue of people, is really not easy for everybody.

I left the store and half way to my car I thought, no, I need to speak to that area manager. I'll go back in on the impression that I'm buying a cake (which I quite fancied anyway, having seen them). So I went back in and for consistency I thought it would be easier to speak to the same lady because she knew that I'd just handed her this scroll. However, typical, it was somebody else on the till, this guy who was full of charisma and people skills and communication skills, just smiling – lovely, absolutely delightful - so I asked for my cake. He commented on how delicious my choice was, and that he eats a lot of them. 

We were chatting away and he said, can I take your name please? I thought, right, this is my 'in'. I said, "Really? Is that necessary for a cookie?" He said, "Well, it won't let me get past this screen on the till," which I thought was fascinating - they actually can't get past the screen without entering a name! So I said, "Well interestingly, this is what I've just called in for, to bring some information", and he looked interested. 

I thought it was fascinating - they actually can't get past the screen without entering a name!

I explained what day it was, that I'm a therapist and that STAMMA was trying to engage with somebody at Starbucks to raise awareness that just saying your name, particularly when there's a queue of people, is really not easy for everybody. And I said sometimes it's not always saying the name that's difficult, it's saying the name with an audience if there's a queue. 

He seemed really interested, so we chatted away and I said, "Oh, I believe the area manager's in today. I'd  be happy to have a chat with her. And he said - which I thought was fabulously serendipitous of the whole situation - "Oh, she's on a call at the moment, but in any case I'm her manager, so I'm happy to talk to you". 

Brilliant! Superb! So I paid for my cookie (it was well worth the £3 something for this big cookie to get this audience with this guy). He opened the scroll, read all of the letter and said, "Right, I get it, not everybody would want that, would they".  He said he'd got a couple of meetings later today with other Starbucks managers, so he would bring it up there. He also said he'd scan the letter and send it to various key managers. I mentioned to the man that I was planning on handing the second letter in at a different store, and if it was worth it. He said no, in any case it would get through to him anyway. 

I left the store absolutely with goosebumps as to how well it went because I was a little bit nervous walking in - I was worried about they'd respond. 

I just wanted to share my lovely sunny day moment. Thank you for reading.

You can get involved too - download our letter to Starbucks below to hand in at one of their branches. Or, take part in the Starbucks Day of Action this Saturday 26th October.