American economist Caitlin Knowles Myers. She, with her students as research assistants, staked out eight coffee shops (PDF) in the Boston area and watched how long it took men and women to be served. Her conclusion: Men get their coffee 20 seconds earlier than do women. (There is also evidence that blacks wait longer than whites, the young wait longer than the old, and the ugly wait longer than the beautiful. But these effects are statistically not as persuasive.)
Perhaps, says the skeptic, this is because women order froufrou drinks? Up to a point. The researchers found that men are more likely to order simpler drinks. Yet comparing fancy-drink-ordering men with fancy-drink-ordering women, the longer wait for women remained.
Read about it here.
[From me]
I would tend to agree with this. At least at the Starbucks I go to the employees treat me great. When we lived in Mobile I hardly ever paid for coffee and got most of their mess-ups. When we moved about 5 of the ladies gave me a going away party. They gave me mugs, candies and about 10 bags of coffee. Last May when we came back from New Orleans from a mission trip we stopped at a new Starbucks in Mobile. I had been away for a year and a half and when I walked in one of my employee friends yelled, “Kevin! We’ve missed you!”
What has been your experience at coffee shops?
I can’t say that I’ve been looking for a difference, but I don’t think I’ve seen any discrimination in the Starbucks down here in Texas.
Sure, you’ll get a rude employee every once in a while who doesn’t seem to particularly like their job. Yet overall it seems to me that people just get in line and then wait to get their drink. Service goes as fast as the people can. I’ve never seen anyone get their drink out of turn or be left waiting forever.
I’ve known of other guys like you who get free coffee and other perks from being regular customers or guys who are just really good at sweet-talking the ladies, but honestly any guy with a good enough flirting style could probably do that. I’ve never known a woman of my acquaintance to get free stuff from the Starbucks staff, but that may just mean the women I know haven’t established a regular relationship with one Starbucks store to build that up.
So I don’t think it is a matter of discrimination, but rather a customer loyalty question. Probably those who are regulars will get better treatment.
I’ve never had an experience at a coffee shop (mostly Starbucks) where I felt discriminated against. Any time I run into a problem, it’s usually a new barista. Of course, I’m always polite and if they screw up my drink, it’s no big deal; they always remake it and 99% of the time, give me a coupon for a free drink. I think a lot of how you’re treated by workers in the service industry is directly related to how you treat them.