News about a Starbucks barista went viral after he wrote a hidden message on a cup for a young female client, offering to “intervene” after a man began chatting to her.
The story had been shared on Facebook last year by a Texas woman named Brandy Selim Roberson, but gained fresh attention after being posted by the account Call to Activism on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In the original post, Ms. Roberson thanked the worker for intervening after her 18-year-old daughter was approached by a stranger when she was alone at a Corpus Christi location studying.
“My 18-year-old daughter was at Starbucks, alone, the other night. A man came up to her and started talking to her. A barista handed her ‘an extra hot chocolate someone forgot to pick up’”, she wrote. The cup allegedly included a message that asked, “Are you okay? Would you like us to step in? If you do, remove the cup’s lid.”
The man, Ms. Roberson claimed, “was very loud and animated”. “She looked up and just saw a row of baristas staring at her — ready to step in. This reaffirms my faith in humanity. Maybe just seeing this story, others … if given the opportunity to say something or turn away, they would say something.”
“How grateful I am for people who look out for other people! Side note: She felt safe and did not remove the lid, but let them know. She said the whole team was watching over her the rest of the time she was there. Thank you to Starbucks for having a great team.”
While many social media users commended the conduct of the Starbucks personnel, others argued that they had overreacted and lamented the existing condition of male-female interactions.
“Can’t approach women in coffee shop (creepy). Can’t approach women at work (unprofessional). Can’t approach women at the gym (distracting, creepy). Can’t approach women at church (no singles). Can’t approach women in public (with friends). What are men supposed to do?”, one user wrote on X.
