Starbucks — Restaurant in San Diego

We are your next-door neighbor, SciEats – a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to make healthy, nutritious meals accessible to all through a sliding scale pricing model and community engagement around nutrition and its impact on health. We respect individual choices and aim only to provide healthy options and education.

We have encountered issueswith Starbucks customers using our private parking lot. Their own parking capacity is limited, resulting in customers lining up on the street and, in some cases, using our lot – which is funded by donations to our nonprofit. Not only that when we requested these customers, some of them got physical and language abusive and using racist slurs and calling on ICE to deport people like us - citizen Scientist who are doing the actual community work and thinking about the health of the people!

While our primary concern is philosophical and health-oriented – why should donor money be diverted to support corporate profit? – we also have practical concerns. Signs clearly indicate "Private Parking – Tow Away" and "No Trespassing," yet some customers ignore them, which reflects poorly on their judgment and respect for others’ property.

We approached Starbucks with two reasonable requests:

Educate their customers not to use other private parking lots.

Expand their parking capacity to accommodate their patrons.

Starbucks declined both, stating it is not their responsibility and that expansion is unaffordable – a reality we’ve seen reported in the news.

Therefore, we urge Starbucks customers to exercise common sense and respect our property. Please do not misuse SciEats’ donor-funded resources for corporate convenience. Let’s all make thoughtful choices that align with community values, health, and respect for others.

Thank you for your understanding.

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Everywhere I have lived, I have had a "go to" starbucks. I've been living here in College Area for 5 months now. This is by far the speediest starbucks I have ever been to. Which is great. But the parking area and drive thru is a mad house. You have a ton of cars coming from both driveways and it blocks traffic. Now honestly I feel there should be a sign off of 67th saying it's not a "drive thru" entrance for the very reason that you have a parking area on the alley for starbucks customers, and getting in and out can be a pain. Now this side is very convenient since 90% of your drive thru customers come from El cajon Blvd driveway. But that parking area (the spots near the front entrance) is not ideal for someone who is just picking up a mobile order and wanting to leave right away. This is impossible when the line of cars is blocking the way. Now I usually park in the alley side so I am able to get in and out, but the SAME EMPLOYEE CARS ARE ALWAYS PARKED THERE. [ silver integra and dark grey honda with blavk rims] This completely defeats the purpose of customers being able to get in and out in a timely matter. So when it's full, because I see the same cars parked there, I am forced to park in the area blocked from cars going into the drive thru. I come here at least 4 times a week. At different times. It's a busy location. So another suggestion I would advise is, make the alley side parking strictly for mobile orders or 15 minute parking? I know it's just a suggestion and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. At the end of the day my opinion will just be an opinion. But the functionality of this starbucks parking lot is definitely something...

I just left here after volunteering to pick up a co workers order. I stood there, the only person at the counter, while a small woman with a red hair and a ponytail chatted extensively with a tall curly haired young man about her plans to buy an Alfa Romero and such. they went back and forth, standing mere inches away and either never asked or wondered why I was at the counter? after five minutes I asked who was going to ask me why I was standing there and what I needed? There were four employee total working just now, but two were engaged in personal chatting while the other two busily worked the window and the register. The red headed woman got angry when I asked for assistant, telling me anyone else would have just grabbed their order from a spot on the counter that was out of reach to me. She actually slapped the sandwich on the counter and handed me the drink, again repeating what " most people know where to pick up". This seems easy enough to instruct waiting customers to do, if only she wasn't so engaged in her future car talk, she would have asked herself why I was standing there still? and notice that perhaps I didn't know that. I don't go to Starbucks often and wasn't impressed with the service enough to consider starting. I can't wait for the robot revolution to replace these workers. Can't Wait!!!!! I will go to StarBucks when the useless people have...