When Grammy Award-winning singer Christina Aguilera performed at the NBA All-Star game on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, that wasn’t the end of her good deeds in The Big Apple. In a unique and surprising form of customer engagement, Aguilera on Monday visited a Starbucks Coffee shop in Rockefeller Center and paid for everyone’s coffee for an hour.
The 34-year-old Aguilera posed with fans in the Starbucks Coffee shop for pictures and signed Starbucks coffee cups.
According to the Starbucks website, an ordinary Monday
transformed into “instant pandemonium” when Aguilera walked into the Starbucks and bought customers coffee for an hour.
“Christina came in with a big group of people around 4:30 in the afternoon,” Alexis Warren, store manager of the Starbucks Rockefeller Center Concourse location said on the company’s website. “She told one of our baristas she wanted to buy coffee for everyone for the next hour. Instant pandemonium is the best way I can describe it.”
Warren said Aguilera handed the barista several hundred dollars in cash and was surrounded by about 30 people within a few minutes that recognized who she was.
The singer/songwriter is also a judge on “The Voice,” which returns with a new season of contestants next week. Although Starbucks is a sponsor of the NBC TV show, Aguilera said her offer of “free coffee” was not related to any promotion, but just because she wanted to surprise people.
Warren, who’s been a Starbucks partner (employee) for 10 years, said the gift of “Coffee on me for the next hour! Head to 30 Rock!” – as Aguilera tweeted – made for a “really fun, high energy afternoon” for customers and partners.
Aguilera didn't order anything from the store, but she did leave behind an autographed Starbucks cup with a lipstick kiss.