i need a job. i've mentioned this. i'd prefer to work for a company whose business practices i can get behind. fair trade shouldn't just be an option...

i interviewed at caribou this morning. i was feeling like i could be okay with working there - after all, they seem to be way more into fair trade than starbucks. and it's just a job. just something to do to get the bills paid. and more than that, it is something i enjoy. making people smile. being a bright spot in their day. but at one point in the little "fair trade" segment of our dialogue, the manager rabbit-trailed a bit with the manager-in-training talking about - not actually doing more with the fair trade stuff - but capitalizing on what they already do with new signage, etc. i mean, yes, marketing is important when you're trying to make money, i don't have a problem with that. it just seems to me the more i think about it that maybe they're trying to make it seem like they're more socially responsible than they actually are. i looked all over their website. i couldn't find any numbers relating to fair trade. granted, it does say that half of their coffee is "rainforest alliance" certified. and that's great. i can get behind that. i just wish they'd say more than just that caribou is a "fair trade-certified company." what does that even mean?? maybe it's all fairly traded, and i'm just being paranoid. as far as i could find out on the interwebs, the rainforest blend is their only actually fair-trade-certified coffee. is it too much to ask for them to be a little bit clearer on that one point? it just seems a wee bit...sneaky.

anyway. i won't know if i got the job till sometime next week. i'm not sure how i'll feel if i do get it. yesterday, i applied at guglhupf, but i don't know anything about their coffee (other than the americano i had was pretty good). i'm planning to go a little later and drop my resume at "joe van gogh" on broad st. but i have no way of knowing whether they're hiring. i can hope, because i know they're definitely all about some fair trade/fairly traded/shade grown/organic goodness. and i like smaller operations. i learned a long time ago that i wasn't so much a fan of the whole corporate deal. it's far too impersonal. but if that's what i'm offered, who am i to say no? they're the ones with options. they're the ones who have people lined up for interviews. i haven't been offered anything (besides a stylist position at the "haircolorXperts" place across from southpoint - no thanks) so far. when it comes down to it, if i'm offered something at a one-percent-of-our-coffee-is-fair-trade-and-we're-proud-of-it starbucks (okay, this is just what i've hears - to be fair, they do seem to have a pretty decent goal for ethical sourcing), what am i going to do? what choice do i have? at this point, short of mcdonalds or great clips, i'll take what i can get.