Woman makes up fake dating story to call out Starbucks on unions

A woman went viral on Twitter after sharing a fictional story about suggesting Starbucks as a first date spot.

Twitter user Colleen posted an image of the text message to the app on 13 February, with the caption, “I literally can not take online dating anymore how is a guy going to be insane about a Starbucks date ?????”

Her message began with a text hello to a man named Matt, whom she met through the dating app Hinge. “You said you were free Thursday, I was wondering if you wanted to grab a cup of coffee at the Starbucks and maybe get to know each other a little?” she texted.

Matt replied: “Starbucks?”

In a separate message, he said, “Yeah I’m not sure this is going to work. You seem nice and all, but I have standards – obviously you don’t.”

“I’m trying to build a vision and work towards the finer things in life, and that starts with people on my same wavelength,” he added. “Starbucks just f***s up the vibe.”

It turns out the whole thing was a ploy, Colleen later posted on Twitter. It was an effort to respond to Starbucks’ response to unionisation efforts at several stores.

“Yeah @HeGotAFlipPhone and I made this up so that we could bait Starbucks into replying and call them out for union busting but then Starbucks just started posting a ton of “we’re great for first dates” content across all of their platforms and getting dragged in the comments,” she wrote, sharing screen shots of Starbucks posting date-related content on their social pages.

The original tweet garnered more than 71,000 likes and thousands of replies to the text exchange. Many users sympathised with the man’s message and felt that suggesting Starbucks for a date does not make a good first impression.

“Suggesting a first date at a place like Starbucks or McDonald’s just paints you in a certain fast food, low quality position,” one person tweeted. “They will work for some, not for many others who especially on a first date would aim a little higher.”

“Starbucks??? That’s so unoriginal no wonder you got denied,” one user replied. Colleen responded to their comment, explaining that Starbucks offers an easy out for a first date gone bad.

“I like to try to meet at a neutral place for a first meet up, that way if it doesn’t work out for whatever reason it’s really easy to leave!” she responded. “Also so there’s no pressure for anyone to spend a lot of money on something that’s not going to work out and it’s a good place to chat!”

However, others defended Colleen’s frustration with his response, and considered Starbucks a neutral and safe location to meet someone in person after talking online.

“I think the missing perspective here is that for men a blind internet date is about ‘the finer things’ whereas for women it’s finding a well lit public space to reduce the chance of violent death,” defended one Twitter user. “Understanding that is the first step towards dating success!”

“I’m sorry that rape culture leads women to want a safe place to meet someone for the first time,” one person tweeted. “Anyone with an understanding of our world’s flaws and compassion for general fear should understand this. He’s not the one. Clearly!”