Starbucks: No Pictures Allowed! Also Starbucks: Nah, It’s Ok.

• Starbucks benefits from social media posts.
• There is no issue if you take photos or videos.
• Starbucks had an issue with me taking videos.
• Starbucks staff lied to me telling me it was prohibited to photograph or record inside the store
• I called customer support to verify this claim.

I had an incident at Starbucks the other day. It left a nasty taste in my mouth. I even made a video about it.

Since this happened, I have not been to that Starbucks location, nor do I intend to. Overall, I cut back my Starbucks consumption by about 95%. Since this incident happened, I've only been to a Starbucks location 3 times.

Each time was just to meet friends because it was convenient. In their defense, the regional manager called me about a week later to talk about the incident. I explained to him what went down, I also told him about the 1st amendment and how their approach is in a grayish area.

You can't invite people to visit your publicly accessible location, and take advantage of their photos and videos and reviews online and at the same time prohibit such photos and videos from being taken.

If their policy really forbids photography and videos in the store, then the policy should be clearly posted on the front door. The grocery store Sprouts does this, they have a sign posted at the door which clearly states no photography or video allowed.

I feel that any business that prevents you from recording on their premises is a bit of hypocrite. Especially if their policy isn't clearly posted or available when invoked.

On one hand, they'll turn a blind eye to photos and videos that make it onto Yelp and Google Guides and Trip Advisor, but for some reason, they'll call you out if your camera looks "professional."

The funny thing is that I had already reviewed this Starbucks location years ago. When I went to leave a review I noticed my previous one, and it was similar, not a very positive review. So I just updated my old review.