Food Stamps

A downtown Seattle Starbucks fired 21 year old barista Coulson Loptmann on Monday because he ate a sandwich that had been thrown away in the garbage. Loptmann had worked at the Starbucks location for over a year. Like many cafes, Starbucks throws away food that has expired, donates what it can, and then tosses the items that are more likely to spoil soon. Loptmann says that he couldn’t get enough hours at Starbucks to help him pay his bills and that he survives somewhat on the use of food stamp benefits.

He claims that he hadn’t eaten all day and that he was stuck working a seven-hour shift at his job when he was fired. One of his coworkers had just marked some of the breakfast sandwiches out of stock and Loptmann figured that it wouldn’t be an issue if he took one of the plastic-wrapped sandwiches out of the trash can and ate it. However, Starbucks didn’t find this behavior acceptable. A week later, Loptmann’s manager sat down with him and told him that she had found out about the situation and contacted human resources.

The issue was that Starbucks considered Loptmann’s actions to be an act of stealing and that it was against their policy. As a result, he was fired on the premises. One Starbucks spokesman said that it was a violation of policy to consume products that have been marked-out. However, he said that it was not considered stealing, but rather that the standards were there for the good of the employees. The company doesn’t want to risk that the employees may eat possibly spoiled products and then get sick as a result.

However, Loptmann claims that he didn’t have any issues with his performance previously or any problems with his manager. He claims that the policy that he was taught when he worked at Starbucks never stated that the food could not be eaten. He also noted that his manager had cited stealing as a reason for termination and that there was no mention of concern about his health or safety. During 2011, Loptmann was hired as an almost full-time employee, but then after a few months, his hours at work started to disappear. He ended up working 23 and 32 hours per week for $9.94 an hour, in addition to $30 a week in tips. His schedule was variable. It was possible that even if he was scheduled to work, he might be sent home if the store was too slow.

Loptmann also shared that he had to get food stamps in order to make ends meet and that it was still a challenge for him to be able to afford lunch every day. Some days he would live off of food while he was at Starbucks due to having a 30 percent discount and a few free coffees each day. On the day that the sandwich issue occurred, he said that his coworker was throwing away the sandwiches and commented that it was a waste to throw them out.