It is not clear who is behind Dumb Starbucks; the baristas were hired from ads on Craigslist. The fitting out of the store must have cost a fair bit, and the whole enterprise must have involved considerable organisation for something ephemeral (chances are it'll be gone by the time Starbucks' lawyers get around to dealing with it). Is it some wealthy Discordian using their fortune to freak the mundanes and fill the world with the inexplicable? A (well-funded) performance art project? Banksy's latest happening? A viral campaign for Starbucks themselves? Or (as someone in the MetaFilter thread suggested) some implausibly rich guy who, for some reason, was pissed off at Starbucks throwing money at annoying them in the way that only a narcissist insulated from everyday reality by nigh-unimaginable wealth can? Or some other explanation altogether fnord?