That Starbucks barista whose “rant song” spread like wildfire over the past week? Christopher Christwell, known as chrissizle on YouTube, was fired from a five-year gig as a Starbucks barista Tuesday because of the ensuing uproar, he told viewers.
“It does suck,” Christwell said in his second Starbucks Rant video. And despite complaining about Starbucks patrons like the “rich white lady” who always orders a skinny vanilla latte, he said he “actually loved the customers a lot, too … that may not be something you know about me. I’m a people pleaser.”
In an interview with the Boston Herald, Christwell characterized his video as a “healthy [way] to break the tension.”
And yet his apology video rapidly went off track, as Christwell sang a new song about customers and offered racial and ethnic stereotypes about the drinks they ordered—for example, that Arab customers ordered chai lattes.
“I know this will offend you / I can’t help that it’s so true / I know many agree / that it’s a Starbucks reality,” Christwell sang.
While Christwell’s song may be impolite, or even off base—I doubt he’s done a scientific survey of customers beyond the store where he worked—he does raise some issues Starbucks management might want to listen to. For example, Christwell’s complaints about “treat receipts,” a sometimes confusing discount offer for customers who buy coffee in the morning and return in the afternoon, echo ones I’ve heard from baristas everywhere from Virginia to California.
Here’s Christwell’s original video and the not-exactly-apologetic apology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2aquc9gYUE
