Yes and no. If you can reach the promised land of being full time, they give positively amazing benefits. However, they keep the majority of their baristas just below the “full time” threshold to avoid paying out these benefits. But your friend is probably referring to their coffee which is either all fair trade or the weird Starbucks plan wherein they made deals with farms for the exclusive rights to their coffee, paid above the normal cheap values but it is up in the air as to if they paid a “fair” value, and worked with the farmers to improve the growing lands and processes. They take a lot of bad press for not being fair trade certified, but their program is better than most coffee roasters attempt.