Starbucks: so many different viewpoints!

The Statesman Journal republished Marie Cocco's opinion piece, which was originally written for the WaPo. She opens her piece with, "I'm not one to take lightly the loss of 12,000 jobs, especially when they come with good benefits such as health insurance and vacations for part-timers. Still, I'm finding it hard to suppress a bit of smugness over the downsizing of Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee chain that put the word "latte" on everyone's lips".

Yes, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

And this is exactly the arrogance that Brendan O'Neill, the editor of Spiked, wrote about. He writes, When is the loss of 12,600 jobs a cause for celebration? When those 12,600 workers are mere Starbucks baristas, young men and women in green aprons who use annoying words like ‘venti’ and ‘wet’ (what drink isn’t wet?) while serving overpriced coffee to harried young professionals. Who cares if these workers – many of whom work at Starbucks to finance their studies – are stripped of their livelihoods and forced to peruse the ads in soulless Job Centres? Serves them right for getting a job with the Evil Corporate Coffee Empire in the first place.
At least, that is the implicit message of much of the whooping and cheering that has greeted Starbucks’ economic turmoil.

Here is the irony of all: it might even be a myth that Starbucks drove "mom and pop" coffeeshops out of business. Writing in slate.com, Taylor Clark argued that the chain actually helps those very mom and pop coffeeshops. Starbucks, on the other hand, is often more expensive than the local coffeehouse, and it offers a very limited menu; you'll never see discounts or punch cards at Starbucks, nor will you see unique, localized fare (or—let's be honest—fare that doesn't make your tongue feel like it's dying). In other words, a new Starbucks doesn't prevent customers from visiting independents in the same way Wal-Mart does—especially since coffee addicts need a fix every day, yet they don't always need to hit the same place for it. When Starbucks opens a store next to a mom and pop, it creates a sort of coffee nexus where people can go whenever they think "coffee." Local consumers might have a formative experience with a Java Chip Frappuccino, but chances are they'll branch out to the cheaper, less crowded, and often higher-quality independent cafe later on. So when Starbucks blitzed Omaha with six new stores in 2002, for instance, business at all coffeehouses in town immediately went up as much as 25 percent.

Oh, for the record, I hate Starbucks coffee. A long time ago, when they were spreading into Southern California, I bought a Starbucks mug at the store, got the coffee and sat down to drink it. I expected manna from heaven, and was shocked at how horribly it tasted. I can't even remember the last time I stepped into one to get myself coffee.