Starbucks: Dry your hands!

At the Institute of Help we are fan of signs. We care less about the content of the signs than about the signage structure and it's surroundings. Before you even get to ask, yes I can share that our second favorite type of sign is the dollar bill sign; however we currently prefer the euro sign by about 1.4 times more than the dollar sign. Which really makes the dollar sign 3rd place in the 2011 Signage Rank.

When the Institute held it's bi-weekly annual Leadership and English-Language Development conference at the local Starbucks last week, we were greatly pleased that we were able to land Moumar Qadaffi as our keynote speaker on facing adversity in the work-place. We were also pleased to see that the always slightly arrogant friendly people of Starbucks had gone above and beyond their call of duty in showing how one should hygiene themselves upon a trip to the waterloo.

Of course, people know how to wash and dry their hands, but it's always polite and gentlemanly to remind them how to do it. Here then is the recommended manner:





1. Wet (with water)
2. Soap (using soap)
3. Wash (for 20 sec)
4. Rinse (with water)
5. Dry (with a paper towel)
6. Turn off water (using a paper towel)

Sure it may seem like the instructions are on a hand-dryer, which would seemingly contradict the paper-towel portion of the instructions. But no, Starbucks has used the dryer as a conduit for the ever-popular technique of explanation through visualization. You don't use the dryer to dry your hands. You use it to visualize drying your hands with paper towels. Not a hand-dryer but a communication vessel. Genius. Clever clever Starbucks.

Fun: N/A

Safety: 5/5

Overall: 4/5