It is with sadness in my heart that I share with you the following: Ed Sheeran may not be a man of the people. That’s because over the weekend he showed up at a union-busting Starbucks in Seattle and worked a quick shift, making coffee and posing for camera phones all in the name of capitalism. Booooooo, Ed! Booooooo!
To add insult to injury, according to the Starbucks union, the employees you see are actually the store’s management:
Everybody chant together now: Mandatory fun! Mandatory fun! The whole thing is pretty gross when you look at it from the union perspective. Starbucks corporate is trying to bust the union, preventing people whose livelihoods depend on their job from joining said union; enter Ed Sheeran to make everything seem fun and light. I don’t know about you, but that sure screams “scab” to me.
Now, not being a particular fan of Sheeran’s, I had no idea it was his whole schtick to show up in the city where he’s having a concert and work a quick shift at a local attraction. In Chicago, it was the Wiener’s Circle. In Minneapolis, the Lego Store at the Mall of America. Now in Seattle, it’s a damn Starbucks?! I’m sure you can probably tell, but only one of three of those businesses is a small business that’s locally owned. (Hint: it’s the place where they serve hot dogs and insults in Chicago.) The other two are soulless corporations. Ed! Have your people vet these things better, man! Neither of these massive corporations needs the free press! You could have been a life-changer for a mom-and-pop toy store or coffee stand.
To make matters worse, Sheeran was there to help them launch the Pumpkin Spice Latte, according to the man himself on his Instagram video:
Now, look, far be it for me to mock the PSL, I would never do that. I’m a Basic B. who has already said three times today how much I’m looking forward to “fall weather.” It’s just disappointing that Sheeran is using his star power and clout to help a union-busting organization get attention and press for a product when his platform would have gone much further to help a small business. Especially when Starbucks is closing stores that just happen to have unionized left and right.
Also, I’m sure any locally owned coffee shop in Seattle has a seasonal fall beverage Sheeran could have peddled, but instead, he chose the organization whose union-busting has been called “egregious” and “illegal” by a judge from the National Labor Relations Board. That’s not great! Again, he was in Seattle; it’s not like it was Starbucks or nothing if his heart was set on being a barista for a bit. There are 200 coffee shops per 100,000 residents in Seattle. That is a lot to pick from! But nooooooo, he had to pick a store targeted for union busting by Starbucks. Someone tell this man to rename that song to “The Shape of Boooooooo.”
The whole stunt smacks of a lack of self-reflection. Which makes sense because when your whole thing is showing up and surprising people with yourself, Ed Sheeran, surely some massive egos are at play here. Per Jezebel:
Not only was Sheeran serving lattes but he was serving JOKES as well—and thank god, because I, for one, could use a laugh! “Thanks for having me @starbucks, if you gave me your name I gave you a new one, for I am the barista of joy,” he captioned his Instagram post like a silly trickster of yore. ….Oh. OK. The video shows him giving a man named Rob a cup with “Daisy” written on it and a woman named Erin a cup labeled “Dennis.” Jokes as funny as his music is moving. Thanks Ed, stellar work all around.
The whole situation sucks! What’s next? Is he going to go work a shift at Northrop Grumman? Have a quick jaunt on a poaching ship and shoot some whales? This whole schtick could be as fun and breezy as it’s been manufactured to be if Sheeran simply focused on small businesses in the community that actually contribute, and not massive conglomerates that want to bask in the light of Ed Sheeran’s celebrity. Get it together, Ed!
(featured image: Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic)
