Starbucks bars dogs
According the current manager of Belltown Starbucks the company is no longer allowing customers to walk in with dogs while picking up an order. We were given a comment card and a snotty remark by the manager the “We as a corporation are have a policy. And the FDA won’t allow it.” The manager admitted that the issue stems from Starbucks employees who work this location and NOT the customers who patronize it.
Starbucks Belltown location’s new policy is puzzling indeed considering there are plenty of other coffee shops yards away in Belltown that welcome your pooch into their establishments, Cherry Street Bistro, Le Pet’t Bistro, 64 Stewart Street Restaurant, corner grocers, dry cleaners, sandwich shops. All these Belltown business are well aware that a large percentile of their well-heeled customers are dog-owners. Pedigree pooches stroll the new Seattle Sculpture Garden near Elliot park, frequent Seattle Center.
With so few green places in Belltown and so little time in our lives we bring dogs into establishments and have come to expect this courtesy as we pay hundreds of dollars to the city of Seattle for their licences, vaccinations, neutering or spaying, grooming, feeding and doggie day care. The failure of the dingy Belltown Dog Park (a former drug-dealing spot) to provide clean, secure and attractive surroundings is unfortunate. However, the popularity of the Marymoor Dog Park is evidence that dog owners are an appreciative and lucrative demographic. We will drive 30 miles and pay a dollar to park at Marymoor in order to patronize this park. Locally there are mobile dog washing and walking services. Dog groomers in Seattle and environs can make top dollar. Clearly dog owners matter.
In fact there are NO federal laws prohibiting dogs in restaurants. The FDA Food Code is a recommendation, not a law. Municipalities can opt out and allow dogs in businesses. Business owners also make that decision for themselves. As I reminded the precious 20-year old manager at Belltown Starbucks that HE in fact was not a corporation, but rather worked for one and there was no policy, I remembered seeing an article about permitting dogs in bars locally.
In January 2007 Senator Ken Jacobsen introduced Senate Bill SB 5484 that would allow dog owners to bring their well-behaved dogs into bars while patronizing the business. The intent of this bill was instantly perverted by the Senate Committe into a shameful substitute bill that would ban dogs from entering establishments and only allow dogs only into designated OUTDOOR areas for establishments that served mainly COFFEE or alcohol. Hmm. Do I smell Starbuck’s hand in the Senate Committe? Yes, I do.
If passed, this substitute bill would forever and entirely defeat the intent of the first bill. At this time this substitute 5484 bill has been to passed to the Rules Committee for a 2nd reading. Senators Ken Jacobsen, Ed Murray, Adam Kline and Eric Poulsen are sponsoring the bill. Be sure let them know you aren’t represented by Starbucks Corporation or their policies and are not amused this kind of corporate meddling with Senate bills.