Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Half Off SAlE

There's a Starbucks at every corner, but this broken wooden block letter SAlE sign is a rare treat. The lower leg of the capital L broke in just the right place to make it look like an uppercase i.

Funny story, as I was taking this photo outside the Starbucks on 7th Ave. here in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a young employee came rushing out, waving his hand in front of my camera, "Sir, you can't take photos of the store!" I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. Even after I pointed out that I was on a public sidewalk and could take a photo of anything I saw, he insisted that it was store policy to not allow photos inside or outside Starbucks. It was a slow day, so I told him to prove this obscure policy to me. He went inside to get the manager while I waited outside. When he came back out, sans manager, he scowled, "The manager is too busy, it's your lucky day."

It was my lucky day ... My first wooden lowercase L block letter!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding me? Starbucks thinks they can tell people not to take pictures of their store? I'm tempted to head up the block to take pictures of just that Starbucks.

Anonymous said...

How fun would it be to proclaim a city-wide Take a Picture of a Starbucks Day?

Shani said...

I remember that Starbucks, I went to it often when I lived in Park Slope. They were kind of A-HOlES. Oh look,now I spell like them too. Huh, guess it kind of rubbed off. Oh well, at least you can still use them for their overly expensive internet connection...

Unknown said...

Kinda Makes you want to call a news crew to film outside a StarBucks.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that happened to me at a Starbucks, albeit inside the store. I know why they do it (to prevent direct ambiance theft, not that it's hard), but come on! A teenager taking a picture of his friends...

At least you kept the pic. :D

Ria said...

The L could have the horizontal thingy bent back to look like an I.

Anonymous said...

Wow! I wonder what this creep thought the manager would do. Some people just need a good ass-kicking.

L. said...

There was a sign in my hometown right outside the IGA where a bunch of 12-year-olds would sit and smoke cigarettes.
"NO LOITERING"
An uppercase L, thank goodness.
When the smokers had cleared out, I took great satisfaction in sitting down to eat and write directly under the sign.
Eventually, the N and the O up top were both peeled off, leaving just LOITERING.

Monacular said...

Those people are nuts...I used to work for Starbucks and there is a policy of not taking pictures inside the store...but it was of the store and it's employees and in the midwest we have a bit of a WHATEVER atttitude about that picture policy. So ROCK ON!

Meeg said...

You can take a picture of whatever you want from the public sidewalk including works of art and buildings of architectural interest let alone a stupid starbucks.

Heidicrafts said...

On vacation to Canada, I was delighted to see that the McDonald's sold poutine, a very Canadian dish. I tried to take a photo of the older board and was told that it as not allowed.

Once back in the States, I wrote to a friend in a different province, whose son works for a McDonald's. On my behalf, he asked his manager about a No Photos rule and the manager told him it was a crock of...poutine, perhaps?

I did take a photo of the outside of the McD's. The apostrophe is a little red maple leaf.