Homeowner, no, it was not Starbucks where I worked. This was the day well before Starbucks was around. It was Tim Hortons. But I believe the point, is that if Starbucks today does serve food, you should be aware that everything gets washed together in hot water dishwasher as it did at Tim Hortons.
By the way you don’t have to have Starbucks actually serving up Ham sandwiches to get Treif coffee. Say if the employee brings in a treif sandwich from home, and on lunch break wants to cut it with a knife? What standards of kashrus do they have to stop her from bringing in outside food? NONE. What will it bother them if she uses store equipment such as a knife to cut her sandwich? Then of course it gets into the dishwasher…
Also even if they are only selling cheese sandwiches, there is the problem with Rennet, which is the gastric juice from a pig/cow used to make cheese curdle. (aka bacterial enzymes)What would be interesting to create is a documentary of Starbucks’ pratices and how “kosher” it really is to get a coffee.
Someone should just go in with a video camera and order something and then ask a few questions about where do things get washed and have them show you around. This would be an eye opener to watch.