Is Starbucks really that bad?

The last I heard, there are 8,000+ Starbucks locations... that's at least 7,999 reasons to hate them...



...buuut, Corporate America aside, I lasted 3 days at Starbucks and it's still not the worst job I ever had...

I don't like Starcraps, but the only way they can drive another shop out of business that has less resources is to undercharge, which we all know is not happening. Competition keeps businesses on their toes and generally improves service and quality. I could digress and analyze generically why they could put indies out of business, but the ones that serve good coffee and have good service never will close because of some generic coorporate competition. Starbucks has been in my city for years and they have not put anyone out of business that didn't deserve it.


[Edited on Mar 22, 2004 by colbito]

i changed my mind.

[Edited on Mar 22, 2004 by JaneDoe]

Let me rephrase to say that its not illegal and not unethical in my mind.
People that hate starbucks seem to expect corporations to act like they are charities instead of businesses.

Starbucks is hateful because it is yet another purveyor of the insidious trend among corporate retailers to make all of their locations and products exactly uniform. You can get the same overpriced caffeinated sludge and chill out in the same tackily-designed, logo-emblazoned structure in any almost any region of the country. Variety makes things more interesting and allows more ideas to be realized, and that is supposedly a part of democratic society. But if more corporations like McDonalds and StarBucks have their way, we'll all be consuming the same over-hyped unhealthy shit. The are other problems too; the downsides of franchising, the widening of the gap between wealthy executives and minimum-wage earners, the centralization and deregulation of the food service industry, to name a few. We don't expect corporations to act like charities. There is no need for such a concentration of wealth and power. We just want them to regard their customers and employees as human beings.
They are successful though because people mindlessly latch onto brands because they are familiar and safe, or may connote a certain social status, even though the products associated with the brand can be subpar or just outright shit.
Ignorance is bliss I guess, but bliss is for suckers though.