The year I applied, the company had 130,000 employees and received 584,000 applications. Since the early 1990s, more than 500 Starbucks outlets had opened within a half-hour drive from my house. For many it’s simply a place to get a cup of coffee on the way to work for others the chain’s rapid global spread is indicative of a dark side of capitalism, the homogenization of cityscapes, and the spreading sameness of neighborhoods. To most people, Starbucks represents something. “The first place is home, the second place is the office, and for many people, Starbucks is the third place: not home and not the office.” Marty said I would hear a lot about Starbucks as a third place. “This is why,” Marty said, “Howard Schultz cares so much about us, the partners.” He told me that Schultz’s father worked for a company that did not have workers’ compensation, so the family had trouble paying its bills. He told me about Howard’s growing up in the projects in New York and his father’s getting hurt while his mother was pregnant with her fourth child. Marty asked me what the name Howard Schultz meant to me I told him that he was the chairman of Starbucks. Marty asked me what the phrase fair trade meant to me I told him that it had something to do with coffee grown in a labor-friendly way. We were sharing a cup of coffee and reflecting on international coffee-harvesting techniques and food and beverage pairings. Marty produced a slice of lemon pound cake the lemon flavors in the coffee, he said, accentuated the cake and made a good match. I breathed in the smells with new vigor and let the coffee careen hotly through my mouth and down my throat. This first day at Starbucks, an experience shared by all employees, is called “First Impressions.” The format of our meeting encouraged me to step back a few steps and think about coffee and its flavor differently. Marty detected hints of lemon, he told me, and explained the practice of planting lemon trees in Ethiopian coffee fields to shape aroma. I had few words besides the obvious: hot, aromatic, earthy. He asked me what flavors I tasted and what scents I smelled. Marty coached me through the right way to sip coffee. Marty decanted a cup of coffee for each of us and said that the brew was made from Ethiopian Sidamo beans. We sat together in the middle of the café among the afternoon customers. Marty was in his mid-twenties and had buzzed blond hair and the traces of a slim beard lining his jaw. When I walked into Starbucks on my first day of work, I caught the eye of Marty, the store manager, who was behind the counter pouring hot water over coffee grounds in an eight-cup stainless steel French press.

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