So, I can imagine there was a day when I would have changed my kid on the floor of the Starbucks (especially where I am now where the exterior temps are already 105 and in the car likely to be hotter.) Even on the floor, kid would first have been placed on a towel or blanket we carried around.

The parents were in the wrong for acting like complete dumbasses though.

But Starbucks, come off it, a commercial Rubbermaid changing table is $270 at Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-Commercial-Products-Horizontal-Baby-Changing-Station-FG-7818-88-LPLAT/100658221?keyword=changing+table.

Any apology to these parents is mostly asinine, unless you explain you are installing a changing table (or two). So install a damn changing table, your non parent customers will thank you for it too.

> But Starbucks, come off it, a commercial
> Rubbermaid changing table is $270 at Home Depot

Admittedly, Starbucks makes a lot of money for coffee, which can be had much more cheaply. And much of the attraction is the mood and social vibe of their store settings, which are often funky and (themselves) inexpensive.

But I think it's reasonable for Starbucks to not have to host every bit of weirdness or filth that a community will produce over the course of a day. It's OK with me that Starbucks doesn't want people bringing babies with loaded diapers into their shops.

(Though that probably has little to do with this... It sounds like one of their [male] employees was just feeling a little menstrual that day.)

This is an attitude we see throughout government nowadays, including through the IRS scandal... That there's no limit to what can be demanded of you if you turn profit; that every successful venture (or person) must submit to the will of people who can think of ways for them to be even nicer.

Well, fuckin', NO.... Starbucks sells coffee and pricey carbohydrates. They don't care for the mentally ill, or teach adult literacy classes every afternoon from 2 to 4:30, or offer free lockup space for bicycling commuters in nearby offices, or provide a place for people to rinse babies.

I'm OK with that.

The iPhone iBabyMom is their iDemographic. All their yuppie and pre-yuppie customers take changing tables for granted.

I haven't had babies needing changing tables in 15 years, and perhaps it's my living in Berkeley when I did, but I'm actually surprised Starbucks doesn't have changing tables.

I'd feel differently if this was a small independent coffeehouse, but Starbucks has no *corporate* excuse for not installing changing tables. It seems strictly counter to their brand values and mission statements.

(Excerpts from http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/mission-statement)

"Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

Here are the principles of how we live that every day

Our Customers - When we are fully engaged, we connect with, laugh with, and uplift the lives of our customers – even if just for a few moments. Sure, it starts with the promise of a perfectly made beverage, but our work goes far beyond that. It’s really about human connection.

Our Stores - When our customers feel this sense of belonging, our stores become a haven, a break from the worries outside, a place where you can meet with friends. It’s about enjoyment at the speed of life – sometimes slow and savored, sometimes faster. Always full of humanity.

Our Neighborhood - Every store is part of a community, and we take our responsibility to be good neighbors seriously. We want to be invited in wherever we do business. We can be a force for positive action – bringing together our partners, customers, and the community to contribute every day. Now we see that our responsibility – and our potential for good – is even larger. The world is looking to Starbucks to set the new standard, yet again. We will lead.

> The iPhone iBabyMom is their iDemographic.

I think that's not for us to judge. Businesses should be able to select their own demographics and choose the services that'll be provided to them.

> I'd feel differently if this was a small
> independent coffeehouse, but Starbucks has
> no *corporate* excuse for not installing
> changing tables.

This is precisely, precisely the sentiment I was trying to describe... That no one has any business pursuing wealth or success without busybodies —usually exercising government authority— telling them what they're supposed to be doing with that success.

Why does their success mean you get to tell them what to do? What does being *incorporated* have to do with it? What if a large corporation were just on the unprofitable edge of success, or if a Mom & Pop office in a garage (next to a 1997 Tercel) happened to make billions?

I think the impulse you're indulging leads directly to what's happening to Obama this week... These government functionaries have no idea that they've done anything wrong. They think 'Of course we should use the power of our government offices to make people do things we want done, the way we want them done.'

And parenthetically, this is why governments at the local, state and federal level are bad to small enterprises. They like big business, because big companies are easier to push around without killing them. Crazy new and intrusive regulations can be swept away in a large corporation's profit-and-loss spreadsheets, especially if the company is taking the local congressman out on a yacht to ask for regulatory protection from competitors. And of course, it's more appealing to regulate a business you'd like to work in someday, rather than a family's dry cleaning shop in a mediocre part of town.

> perhaps it's my living in Berkeley

Sorry to say that perhaps that explains it.

There are a lot of people in America (and certainly California) who think there's NO purpose to life whatsoever but to expand the power of government.

See also August 11, 2012 10:01 PM—

Dear Mr. DC Comics publisher:

The Green Flash and Batman should get
into an *epic* fight on a tanker ship!!!!

                      Signed,
                      Snot-nosed Tommy

Any business that doesnt provide bathrooms for anyone likely to be in their vicinity, particularly places which expect people to be there for a while, is asking for trouble. You dont have bathrooms... Rude people WILL pee in your alley. Are they obnoxious? Yes. Does that make your alley less peed in? No. You dont have a changing table? Its just a matter of time before it happens and if you dudnt see it coming you're an idiot

The iPhone iBabyMom is their iDemographic. All their yuppie and pre-yuppie customers take changing tables for granted.

I don't go to Starbucks for exactly this reason. All these iIdiots with the iOverinflated iSenses of iEntitlement bother me.

And besides, Dunkin Donuts has better coffee.

She could have carried a baby blanket and changed him on the floor. I never changed my kids in public, and anyone who does so is an animal.

Thanks, I needed another reason to avoid Starbucks.

Oh, pooh. Much a-doo about nothing. This too shall pass. Before you know it, the toilet training will begin and she'll be bringing the potty chairs into the restaurant like the woman in Utah.

They grow up so fast...sigh...

I don't think Starbucks should HAVE to provide changing tables, but it seems like good business to do so. As it was mentioned upthread, people are going to be there for awhile. You want to encourage them to stay and buy more $7 coffee, not leave because the baby needs a change.

The appropriate thing to do would be to go change your baby in your vehicle.

Assuming you have one available. I don't usually drive to Starbucks. I go to the one a few blocks from my apartment, or I stop at one when I'm traveling. The car is usually in a lot blocks from where I end up.

Of course, these people could have finished up and left, or asked if there was a private place they could change the kid.

Everyone in this story sounds like a douchebag.

Um.... Yeah.
I've taken my son to the car before to change him, especially if I was ready to leave anyway. But here's the thing: my diaper bag came with a changing pad, and so did all the other diaper bags I looked at. So if there wasn't a table, and the bathroom was private, or had a handicap stall (which I believe they are required to have), I'd probably change him on the floor of the bathroom. It would suck a little bit for me, but on the bright side, there is a sink and soap right there, and I wouldn't be waving poop around other people's food.
I agree with Monica. It sounds like everyone in this story was being a jerk, although, I sort of doubt the original rag-hander was particularly "demeaning." What is a nice way to say,

"please clean up after yourselves, and thanks for possibly getting human waste on a seat someone else is going to want to use later,"?

Not to mention, if the poop isn't cleaned properly, and someone else got sick, the Starbucks would be liable.

I had parents change a kid in the booth next to me in a resturant. I told the manager to thank them for buying my half eaten meal and that I would not be returning to this location ever again.

"Burgos says his blood started boiling"

So, he was pissed that people expect him to clean up his own childs shit?

This entire incident was instigated (and probably stage-managed) by the Burgos.

I don't know how long that store has been open, but it seems to me that the Burgos cannot have been the first people to need to change a diaper at that Starbucks.

Despite the lack of a changing table, other patrons with children have managed to change diapers without doing it in the dining area and pitching a fit about it.

Ruth Burgos' public changing snit and Alex Burgos pouring his coffee onto the floor because an employee (snottily or not) told his wife to clean up the feces she'd brought into the restaurant's dining area tells me this couple has an outsized sense of their own entitlement.

The article says this was a "Friday night coffee run." That indicates they only went out for coffee. Why didn't they just take the child home to change him when she saw there was no changing table in the restroom?

They could later have come back to speak (calmly) with the manager about installing one.

What's next on the Burgos' crusade to force the world to accommodate their lifestyle choices?

Are they coming back next week with a Wiggles DVD and demanding that Starbucks provide a TV and DVD player?

When the child is two, are they going to just start playing catch with him in the dining area to protest the lack of a children's play area?

And I've heard people complain about, and say they don't use changing tables because they're "dirty."

I wish Starbucks had said:

"We'll look into providing a changing table at that location, but our employees and the other customers are due an apology."

I thought this whole thing was pear shaped from the get-go...

but there is a balancing point here where as humans we realize that kids do stuff... and we were all kids, and we did stuff, and the entire human race goes forward only with kids doing stuff...
so maybe not being so rigid all the time would be good, on all parties.

Parents were stupid, and stupid for causing their little scene over junior's diaper... some places don't have a changer, and some of them are busted off the wall, so? Be creative, but don't make it everyone's problem... and heavens to mergatroid when you don't have other choices APOLOGIZE PROFUSELY TO EVERYONE AROUND...
sometimes sh*t happens, and people make allowances if you make nice about it. Everyone sometimes needs community understanding.

But this is something that you ask for, not something that is yours for the taking.

Starbucks people are stupid. and stupid. I've been in dive gas stations in the middle of nowhere that had a changing table IN THE MEN'S ROOM TOO!
OI! this isn't rocket science, it's called customer service... I can't believe they made such an oversight...

And their reaction is a problem. Where's the Mgr? Where is the person who can make the best of a situation, smooth everyone's feathers, and make magic happen? You have to subtly make your point, not throw a rag at your customer.

"We're sorry, we'll take care of getting a changing table put in, this must have been an oversight. In the meanwhile, let us know if you have such an issue again as it is against Health Department Regulation for you to do that in an eating area."

Then you ceremoniously clean and disinfect the table and booth as if it's toxic waste, while apologizing to all your other customers, making the silent point that this behavior is not acceptable.

If you as the worker crew are doing such a thing, most parents will join in suddenly mortified, realizing the situation.

Certainly there are also plenty of people who are so self absorbed that they won't see it as something that THEY should apologize for, but you can't do much with people like that. Can't live with 'em, and you canna shooooot, 'em.

But at no point in a normal situation do you have to call the police. I've thrown people out of establishments I managed, when they were belligerent, I never had to do more than threaten.

sheez, it's a frelling cup of coffee, people.

And I've heard people complain about, and say they don't use changing tables because they're "dirty."

I had no problem using a changing table, because I put the changing pad that came with the diaper bag on the it first! Where there wasn't a changing table, I used the changing pad, but NEVER in a restaurant where people were eating. Usually I'd take care of that kind of business in the car, or at home, like any other reasonable, well-adjusted ADULT. The Burgos are just pigs with overinflated senses of entitlement, and so will their child(ren) be. People like this are best avoided at all times.

If the Starbucks is just a few blocks away they could take the kid home to change him/her. The kids not gonna die because his diaper had poop in it five minutes.

Also, parents, it's good to learn to change a diaper without having to lie the kid down.

Where's the Mgr? Where is the person who can make the best of a situation, smooth everyone's feathers, and make magic happen? You have to subtly make your point, not throw a rag at your customer.

“Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.”

The quote is vital to customer service, too.

Many moons ago, in the grocery store business, I realized that grocery stores are nicest to the total jerks. Make a fuss, complain about anything and everything, you walk out with free stuff. Be calm, patient and understanding, you pay full price.

and we were all kids, and we did stuff, and the entire human race goes forward only with kids doing stuff

That's a great point.

I'm old enough to know that there were no changing tables in public venues when I was that young.

Yet somehow, my parents managed. Of course, they had a toughening up period: surviving a Depression and an existential-threat of a world war. Changing a diaper in public? childs play.

Another thing about customer service is for managers to remember that sometimes you have to fire your customers.

It isn't a very happy thing to do, but it is occasionally necessary.

Everyone in this story sounds like a douchebag.

I was going to comment but then Monica nailed it perfectly.

> I never changed my kids in public, and anyone
> who does so is an animal.

☑ !

(I have no kids, but still....)

I've changed a diaper pretty much anywhere you can think of, except where others dined. I don't think anyone ever noticed. You change diapers for more than 8 years straight, you get reeeeaaally good n quick at it. Plus, strollers work great as a changing table.

Everyone in this situation was wrong. If you can't come up with a nice way to ask someone 1)not to do that or 2) to clean up after then you have no business working in service. Just more proof too many coffee makers snobby assholes.

Besides which, who cleans the Starbucks bathrooms? It wouldn't have killed the employee to do the wiping up to make sure it was done right. Wiping poo is clearly one of their job descriptions.

This entire incident was instigated (and probably stage-managed) by the Burgos.

This is a set up for a lawsuit. Watch. The Burgos will be suing Starbucks (big bucks) in the near future.

They'll be doing it "for all the parents out there," but don't look for them to share any of their winnings.

Perhaps the employee was rude. But why? These customers were rude to fellow customers and then acted even more rudely when they were called out on their obnoxiousness.

Shame on them, and shame on Starbucks for caving in and "apologizing."

Starbucks claims that every customers deserves to be treated with dignity. Ha! How about the dignity of other customers who had to put up with this couple?

Changing a diaper in an eating area is a HEALTH HAZARD. Period. She could have easily used the bathroom floor, but OMG, then she couldn't stir up drama because everyone wasn't catering to her life choices.

Wow. Her husband really has some sand in his vag over this.

Aaand here's the happy hipsters in the fleshy flesh:

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2013/05/diaper_change_starbucks_alex_ruth_burgos.php

Good god, no wonder they act like assholes.

That it was about 10PM at night means that probably the sub-assistant-junior manager was on duty. That means that there was one or two 18 year old servers and a 19 year that they trusted with the key and the alarm code running the place.

So they see this couple acting like the royal assholes that they are, and they feel snarky about it. There is a difference between a person having an accident in a bathroom, especially if they have the guts to admit to it and try to help clean up, and just exposing it to everyone in a dining room.

Starbucks (corporate) should have worded the statement:

We will address the changing station in the future. We don't agree with the treatment of the family by our workers and that will addressed as a personnel matter with them. However, we do not find changing a child's diaper in a public eating area as acceptable at any time.

Fair and balanced and that absolves them of guilt.

Propriety. A dead notion in modern America. Entitlement shot it down like a dog. Like a dog Buford.

I have two kids and I've never once changed them in an eating area, nor would I ever think that's appropriate. If there is no changing table, which I've encountered often, I put the changing pad from my diaper bag down on the floor and use that. No big deal. These parents are totally out of line in their behavior, especially in spilling coffee everywhere when told to clean up after their shitty kid.

They were discussing this on the radio here where I live and all these young-sounding women were calling in saying how wrong Starbucks was and all I could think of was how I should move far away from all those entitled asshats.

I know of no Starbucks or any other restaurant that provides changing facilities to accommodate demented, incontinent 95-year-old grandmas or severely disabled children. I've often seen such dependent, disabled elderly and children in public with their families, yet I've never seen or heard of anyone changing such a person anywhere in public, let alone in the food service area of a restaurant or coffee shop, or on a plane. If the families of disabled, dependent elderly and children are able to discretely attend to their needs without any major accommodation from others, and without disrupting the consciousness of people around them, then discretely managing the needs of a little baby should be no problem at all.

"Many moons ago, in the grocery store business, I realized that grocery stores are nicest to the total jerks. Make a fuss, complain about anything and everything, you walk out with free stuff. "

Patrick swings and hits it out of the park. Why are people rude to store employees? Because it works. Those of us who are polite and try to work with the situation are just chumps. We're not moral; we're not special. Our civilized behavior isn't a virtue; it's just a weakness for others to exploit. We're stupid for not doing what they do.

> Patrick swings and hits it out of the park.

The blueprint of his immortal soul is thus described, and it's not our mis-perception, and it's not even an accident. He's built his personality to be as self-centered as possible in all contexts.