Caribou Coffee Doesn't Get It

Last Friday I had called an 8:00 meeting.  The culture of my new company is that things start to get rolling about 9:00, so meetings earlier than that, or later than 4:00, are routinely frowned upon.  

Compare that to the old place, where 7:00AM and 5:00PM meeting starts were commonplace.  Yikes.

To compensate the attendees of my unwelcomed early start, I promised coffee as part of the meeting, and that morning I drove over to our local Caribou Coffee to load up on a box for the attendees.  I got there about 7:30, and was the only customer in the place.  Walking up to the counter, I inquired,  "Do you have one of those coffee box thingies?"  "Yes," came the answer from behind the counter, "but we need 24 hours notice, and we don't do them on weekends."

OK.

All I was asking for was them to fill up a box with coffee.  It would have taken 45 seconds.  Likewise, since I was the only customer in the place, I wouldn't exactly be putting other customers out by my order.  Finally, it was hardly the weekend, unless those start on Friday mornings now (in which case I've been really wasting a lot of my weekends).

I flashed her the "I can't believe you're going to make me do this" face, but she just returned a scowl.  Rules are rules, damn it.

"OK," I said, "please give me eight medium black coffees," which was the fluid equivalent of one of those boxes.  Hence, I was still ordering all of that coffee.  Except now it would take longer to pull together in that there were 8 cups to fill, close, and put into carriers.  And it would be done without 24 hours notice, and during a "weekend" for Pete's sake.

Retail 101 - If your customer wants to buy something, sell it to them.  If rules prevent you from doing so, your company is stupid and you should work somewhere where using your brain is appreciated.