Musing from a darkened Starbucks

Wed Aug 27 2003

A Starbucks during a power outage, August 2003.

You hear rumors of such things happening, but you never actually see it happen. You see, there is a policy that says a Starbucks can only close due to a power outage if said blackout continues for two hours, no less. And so, when we pray for an outage to last that long, it's not just because we hate our jobs and wish to go home.1

View from inside a Starbucks during a power outage, August 2003.

It's really kind of exciting, especially down here where we're so used to power outages. The odds are really against us being able to leave early -- most of the time, when the power goes out, it's back within fifteen minutes. So to hope for a lengthy outage is to wish for the extremely unlikely, and the anticipation goes up with each passing minute. Will it happen or not?

Well, I'm in it for the excitement. My co-workers may very well have just wanted to go home, plain and simple. But I'm telling this story, and I say it's about the fucking adrenaline rush. 'Kay?

The first fifteen minutes is the proverbial Big Break. Without power, there are no cash registers, coffee brewers, espresso shots or blended beverages. So we relax. On our manager's orders, we secured the exits and told any customers who wanted to leave to do so at that time. Then we made for the armchairs. Me, I played video games.

After that, it's all about the growing likelihood that It's Actually Going To Happen, so we look for things to do that will help us leave quickly, before the power can come back on, once that two hour timer goes off. Before the emergency lamps went off, one person cleaned the bathrooms. I washed dishes in near-total darkness, then fuddled with the circuit breakers.

Like I say, you hear about these things happening, but in two years with the company I've never seen it. I've seen some stores shut down because one of the biggest demonstrations in Chicago history is happening less than two blocks away, and the mass closing of all 2,500+ stores less than three hours after the 9/11 attacks. And I'm sure this month's mega-blackout down East shut down a boatload of 'em.

But just an everyday power outage? Fuhgeddaboutit.

1 Actually, none of us is particularly disgruntled with Starbucks, apart from the usual piddling gripes everyone has with their employer. I can't speak for my two fellow team members this evening, but had we closed at the usual time, I would have had about seven hours total before I had to come right back to work in the morning.

So not only did we get to have our own little crisis situation to get a nice, non-coffee-related adrenaline rush, I get a whole extra hour or two of sleep. Sweet.