Supplies from Seattle?

So. I work at a Starbucks in downtown Toronto. Earlier today, my manager is expecting a shipment of stock and supplies to arrive. It hasn't. He makes some calls and asks around over the course of the early afternoon.

Now, I am only a barista ... but over the next few minutes, I continue to overhear bits of a conversation between my Store Manager and Assistant Store Manager, both of whom are trying to solve this quandary of the MIA supplies. Between making change for over sixty people's twenties and trying my best to properly call each decaf, triple, tall, one-pump, nonfat, hazelnut americano (or other complicated, personalized, foreign Starbucks-language-coded drink), I may have missed out on some of the details. However, I know that by 3:30 pm, enough concern had been generated over the undelivered goods that my managers decided that a call to Seattle -- to Starbucks' head supply office -- was in order. Apparently, we were not the only store in the GTA not to have received its shipment this weekend. None of our local superiors could give us any more information; so, we took our query right to the source.

As I sit there in the back room, counting my till, I hear the following exchange between my manager and the person on the other end of the line:

"Oh ... it's not coming today? ...

"Oh ... not tomorrow? ...

"Ok. Thank you ..."

Apparently, they're not working at the Seattle supply office this weekend. Some sort of holiday.

Why aren't they working, my Assistant Manager asks out loud? The answer, of course, hits me: Presidents' Day.

This weekend is Presidents' Day weekend in the US -- the amalgamation of two holidays that were historically meant to honour Lincoln and Washington's birthdays, and in some states, Jefferson's birthday as well. (For any clueless Canadian readers, Presidents' Day is the American catch-all equivalent of our May 24 long weekend, Victoria Day).

The fact that, for whatever reason, our Toronto Starbucks' location did not know that Presidents' Day would put a wrench in their supply schedule is somewhat amusingly ironic to my ears. Apparently, Canadian operations were too clueless to realize that an American holiday even existed this weekend, or managers and suppliers in Seattle did not think to notify Canadian operations that this would be the case (or perhaps -- a bureaucratic nightmare -- both). And this from a company that is easily the most successful coffee chain in the world -- a corporation that ought to be renowned for its efficiency!

The whole thing reeks of Canadian and American miscommunication.

I think Canadian and American businesses -- especially American businesses -- assume that the culture on either side of the border is so similar, that they can treat the foreign Canadian or American market as simply an extension of their home country's operations without thinking of the logistic, cultural, and technical consequences of doing business internationally.

One thing is for certain: I won't be coming in specially to receive a shipment of supplies on May 24th. If Starbucks and other like-minded corporations want their international operations to run smoothly, they'd better take the time to learn something about the country they are doing business in, and they'd better learn to coordinate information and operations between those countries.

And if they were really smart, they would learn to use the local vernacular, too (See "Sacred Milk" blog entry, 02/08/07).