I‘ve never seen any polling data on this, but my guess is that Starbucks baristas probably vote, as a class, like Prius owners. I’d be pretty surprised if they didn’t go 75-25 for Kerry and 85-15 for Obama. Walking these guesses a little further down the lane, I suspect that, in general, baristas are down with most of the liberal compassion agenda. Until, that is, it intersects with their world. Starbucks Gossip has an item up this morning about how the financial crisis has led more and more homeless citizens to hang out at coffee shops. (The item is based on this story from the Syracuse Post-Standard, which reports that “Starbucks as well as other businesses on the street have been forced to become social service providers, while their customers face potentially dangerous encounters.”) The comments section at Starbucks Gossip is filled with tales from baristas about their encounters with the homeless:
Here’s another:
And another:
There sure is.
