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Dear Starbucks,
I have been an avid fan and drinker of your coffee for quite some time now. A couple of years ago I began collecting your You Are Here Collection (YAH) Mugs when I was traveling up the east coast and I currently own over 20 mugs (they are my all time favorite souvenir)! However, I was sorely disappointed upon returning home and finding out there was no YAH mug for Arkansas. While I was disappointed I get it, I really do. Just like Amazon will never bring their headquarters here, thank you Love, Little Rock, I have come to accept there will never be an Arkansas YAH mug.
Having come to the conclusion I would never see the state of Arkansas on any Starbucks merchandise I was ridiculously excited to see that you were going to offer a limited time Arkansas tumbler as a part of your 2017 Local Collection. I stalked my local Starbucks for what seemed like weeks until I finally saw it! To say I was completely and totally underwhelmed would be the understatement of the year. I purchased a few for gifts but not for myself. I waited a few weeks for that. I kept going back and when they were still on the shelf I finally decided to purchase one if for no other reason so that no one else would have to see this pitiful thing.
I took it home and semi-proudly displayed it next to my YAH mugs and the more I looked at it the more upset I got.
Starbucks. Of all the things that represent Arkansas the best all you could come up with was a few animals, a diamond and some grass? And let’s not even mention the most boring background color of all time?
Starbucks. You can do better than that. I know you can. I am in a few YAH groups on Facebook, yes, I am that nerd who takes her YAH mug collection seriously, and I saw the tumblers that other people were posting for their cities and they were just gorgeous!! They were full of bright colors and fun art depicting their cities and states in their full glory. And then there is the sad little Arkansas mug.
In case you have forgotten how beautiful and iconic the other tumblers in this collection are let me remind you…
See how pretty those tumblers are? I would love to collect any one of those tumblers. Except the Arkansas one. Can you pick it out of the bunch? It’s the drab one on the bottom right of the last pic. I’m sorry if I keep talking about how drab and ugly it is but let’s face facts, it just doesn’t even belong in the same category as these other gorgeous tumblers.
I shared the link to the Pinterest board all of these tumblers are featured on with my friends on Facebook and most of them came to the same conclusion I did, that whoever created the Arkansas mug just found a bunch of clip art, pasted it to the mug and called it a day. Was the artist tired? Did he need a coffee break? Did he Arkansas just that uninspiring?
Now that I have thoroughly pressed my disappointment in the tumbler let’s talk about what you could have done to make it better. First of all you could have used some brighter colors. Arkansas is considered to be The Natural State but have you seen anything outside that drab and uninspiring? I sure haven’t! The outdoors are stunningly beautiful and full of vibrant color! Make Arkansas a pretty, colorful mug!
Now what could you feature on this stunningly beautiful, vibrantly colored tumbler? Try the downtown Little Rock skyline. Have you seen that bad boy lit up at night? It’s like something out of a movie.
And of course include a diamond or two, after all we are the only state in the United States of America where you can mine your own diamonds. And speaking of diamonds how about including something about Savvy Shields, Miss America 2017? That’s right, she’s from Arkansas too, and everyone loves diamonds!
If you want to go the history route you could always include something about the Little Rock 9 and Central High in Little Rock. Both are incredibly special to Little Rock and the state of Arkansas.
If you want to go more “natural” why not include something about rice? Did you know that Arkansas is home to Riceland? Riceland is a farmer-owned agricultural marketing cooperative and the world’s largest miller and marketer of rice. It was founded in 1921 with headquarters in good old Stuttgart, Arkansas.
If you want to go the athletic route there is hands-down nothing that says Arkansas more than the Razorback. The Razorback is the official mascot of the University of Arkansas. If you’re from Arkansas I can almost guarantee you know how to call the Hogs.
There are about a thousand other things I could think of to include on an Arkansas state tumbler but I will stop here, I don’t want to overwhelm you with ideas. I have really high hopes that the next time an Arkansas tumbler or mug is made, if it will ever happen again, that maybe you will take some of these ideas into consideration. It could be a beautiful collaboration.
Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or want to hear any more ideas. riccialexis83@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Ricci
I don’t go to Starbucks (I am from the land of Dunkin Donuts), so I didn’t even know they made these tumblers. It’s a fun idea, but I agree about your state – they could have done better.
Oh girl, I feel you there. I don’t actually go to Starbucks for the coffee. It always tastes burned or way too bitter for me. I’m a McDonald’s coffee girl all the way!!!
Sounds like you could have designed the mug much better. Fun to collect something and you really seem to like collecting these coffee mugs. They are nice and big and hold a lot of coffee.
I can see why this one pales in comparison to the other mugs. That would be a nice collection to have! There are definitely some amazing mugs out there, sorry that the Arkansas mug was a disappointment!
I agree with you judging from the past tumblers. They all look gorgeous, where as yours looks…meh. I don’t collect them, but I can understand your disappointment.
Oh wow Ricci, I never really noticed. Not that I’m surprised or anything, I just never noticed the lack of Arkansas’ representation on the Starbucks
That cup is horrible!!! It was like a last minute thought or something! I hate it when I’m bummed about the design of cups. Honestly Starbucks, you guys can do way better than that!
I had no idea Starbucks had something like this. That’s kind of a fun connection to do. I would collect the ones from the states I’ve been in. They look like they are all created except for Arkansas. I can totally see why you’re disappointed.
I think these tumblers are absolutely adorable. Sorry you feel like it doesn’t do a good enough job representing your state…I think it looks beautiful!
I rarely go to Starbucks. My daughter basically lives there (in college) as does my brother. This might be a conversation to have with them lol.
Oh no that is such a shame :(, the others all look so colourful and yours is just well not so great.
Such a shame that your state wasn’t better represented on the tumbler. I don’t really like Starbucks coffee and now will be on strike even more so!
Ricci I totally agree with you! Were they on a deadline and as you said had time to just copy and paste from toddler books?!?! Maybe not seeings how even the toddler illustration have more life to it. Thanks Starbucks for letting lil ole Arkansas know just how you really feel about the Natural State and the beauty within.
That is a boring cup compared to all the other designs. I will have to look in our local Starbucks for these mugs.
I kind of like the cup, but I can see how it might be disappointing compared to the other mugs. Hopefully they make a better version eventually.
They totally took the lazy design route. I didn’t even know this was a thing but the others are really nice.
I had no idea these cups were even a thing, but I agree with the design. It’s a bit lackluster for sure. Hopefully they can get their design team to do better next time!
I once started buying mugs but quit. As a former resident of AR, I don’t look at this and see the beautiful state of Arkansas. I can see them not doing one sports team as not to alienate others, but did I miss a duck? Big business.
Sounds like they should have had you design the mug! I didn’t even know about the YAH mugs. I would be disappointed too to see my state represented so poorly.
You are so right, that is the most boring design I’ve ever seen considering that it comes from Starbucks. You should send your post to them.
I agree that they could’ve done better. The cup is somewhat bare and unappealing.
This post is a mind opener that Starbucks should take into consideration. Putting up a design that would describe Arkansas or what is the place trademark should be the design of the mug. Indeed its a big deal for collectors.
I just found your blog! I also live in Central Arkansas and collect the YAH mugs and was so disappointed by the tumbler. Did you hear that they are discontinuing the YAH series – I am devastated!!
Hey there fellow Central Arkansan! Yes girl, I am DEVASTATED by the discontinuation of the YAH mugs!! I have been collecting for a few years now. I’m just glad I’m going to Chicago next month so I can grab that one!!
I just bought that tumbler and the Arkansas “Been There” series mug when in town over Christmas. Had no idea how lame it was next to the others! I started searching for the YAH mug online today and was stunned to learn there wasn’t one, but there was one for ugly old Oklahoma where I now live. And Alabama and Ohio?! That’s how I found this post! Mad me laugh! Thank you!
Glad you found the humor in this post! I LOVE the Starbucks You Are Here mugs and was so disappointed in this latte cup! Arkansas finally got a cup and it’s so ugly! HA!
I found the “been there” series Arkansas mug and it’s also awful. They used “the land of wonder” as our motto instead of the natural state. It’s like they didn’t even try???