Dear Diary:
The Scene: Lunchtime at Starbucks, Third Avenue and 28th Street.
I was next in a line of a dozen other customers needing a midday jolt of caffeine. The man in front of me was trying to pay for his $2.88 espresso using his iPhone’s Starbucks Gold Card. Three salespeople, one an obvious trainee, were huddled around the cash register laboring to get it to accept the app.
As nine minutes ticked by and the line increased, the stimulant-deprived crowd began to get unruly, with one fellow campaigning to take up a collection to pay for the guy’s drink. Other comments are not printable.
I know a tab at Starbucks can add up quickly, but not to have $2.88 in emergency money on a block with five A.T.M.’s boggles the mind.
What would Juan Valdez do?
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