Seattleite Will Only Buy Food from Starbucks for the Rest of the Year Because She Can
The well-worn cliche is that there is a Starbucks practically everywhere.
One Seattle woman has decided to take that hackneyed observation to the next level by eating her every waking meal exclusively at Starbucks for the next 12 months.
Well, Starbucks-owned brands: Tazo Tea and Evolution Fresh are okay too.
"I've been going in and getting their nutrition by the cup charts for all their serving sizes," says Beautiful Existence (real name Beautiful Existence), who adds that she's trying to get two chef buddies to help her turn products at Evolution fresh into sushi.
Why is she doing this? Good question.
Speaking with Linda Thomas at MyNorthwest.com, Existence, who is fresh off a year of buying all her stuff at Goodwill, says she want to help Starbucks help communities.
"The company pays good benefits for part-time workers," she says. "That's where my money is going."
Another reason is that other countries get by on fewer eating options than Americans, and Americans have gotten spoiled.
"You go to all these other countries and they don't have these luxuries," Existence tells Thomas. "Really? Is it really going to be that hard for one year of my life to limit my menu? We'll find out."
Finally, this experiment is also about giving women a voice in the fast food diet world.
On her blog, where she plans to document the year-long challenge, Existence writes:
So how can eating only one company's products impact me, anybody? Well Mr. McDonald's already proved that question years ago with his documentary and Mr. Subway did his take on the loosing weight portion of the food challenges too. But when I watched those guys doing their thing I asked myself "where are the WOMEN challenging themselves in the world?" "Where are the effects being shown on a woman's culture? A woman's family & children? A woman's diet, weight, fashion, checkbook, community and world through challenges?" "Where is HER VOICE on how an international company is directly or indirectly impacting everything from her waistline to her bottom line and every other woman's, man's, child's, societies and planets world with their presence?"
It remains to be seen how empowering Existence's latter-day odyssey will actually be.
With an average daily expense of $18.79 so far, Existence is well on her way to an annual total of over $7,000. As Eater points out, that's $4,000 more than the average adult woman spends on groceries, which can used to make something far more nutritious than a pre-packaged artisan whatever.
