This is posted from Inside Main Street. Be sure to check it out for more great stories.
The editor of Inside Main Street Reviews the Starbucks Small Business Plan.
While visiting a local Starbucks coffee shop this week, I recognized the brightly colored wristband sold at the counter as the wristband for Starbucks’ Create Jobs for USA campaign. I had read the premise
of the campaign and posted it on Inside Main Street a few months ago, but I had yet to see the actual thing.
The idea is simple: if you donate $5 or more, Starbucks puts 100% of your donation to the Opportunity Finance Network, “to create and sustain jobs in communities across America.” And, you get a stylish wristband. So, I added another $5 to my total, and studied the wristband as I waited for my coffee. That is when I noticed the literature available at the sugar and cream station that read “Visibly Indivisible.” Inside the paper brochure were easy to read facts, blurbs and images that helped to describe the Create Jobs for USA campaign in more detail.
As I sipped my coffee and continued reading, I saw an old man who slumped over a cane as he shuffled to the counter loudly ask if they had the Small Business donations at this location. When he heard they did, he put a $20 on the table and told them to give the bracelets to some kids. I also saw a middle-aged couple come in with their two elementary age children. As they waited in line I heard the wife say, “Look at this honey.” Followed by the husband asking the barista for two of the bracelets.
All of it made me smile; a main stream effort to help Main Street from a Fortune 500 corporation. An old man visiting his first Starbucks just to donate. A young couple who are just now appreciating what small businesses do for communities. It was all there, and gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling about the future of America’s Main Street, and all because of Starbucks.
