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  • SUNDAY NOVEMBER 25 2007 12:00 PM

Giving up Starbucks

Submitted by SleepyLady

Edited by erin_broadley

Tags: Starbucks, Fair Trade, coffee



How the hell is an independent coffee shop supposed to survive with twelve Starbucks located in the surrounding areas, the closest one only a half mile away?

If you're Rhonda and Jon Mallek, owners of the Fine Grind in Little Falls, NJ you'll put up this billboard.



As reported in the The New York Times, The Fine Grind has the usual coffee shop offerings; Internet access, fancy coffee and seasonal drinks. The Fine Grind had a loyal following as well.

And then Starbucks came to town.

…. Mrs. Mallek was a bit taken aback when she saw two of the regulars — the regulars! — near her shop, Starbucks cups in hand, not long after the new one opened last summer. And so came the idea of the billboard, about a half block from the Starbucks — as close as they could get — reading: “We may not be Big ... but we’re not Bitter!” And “We ARE your neighborhood coffee spot!”



Now it's totally possible that if the Mallek's customers are anything like me, they'll patronize both Starbucks and (places like) The Fine Grind. So, the Mallek's shouldn’t worry, right? Then again it's probably people like me who won't choose a side who are responsible for local businesses closing down.

There are about three local coffee shops in my neighborhood. All three coffee shops are within walking distance from my apartment. I try not to drive unless work related. The problem is that the independently owned coffee shops in my area don’t open early enough. Starbucks opens at 6 a.m. Starbucks' more elaborate drinks are pricey but a small coffee is $1.65 compared to the $3 that one independently owned coffee shop charges.

(For the sake of not putting everyone to sleep I'm omitting any details about how I also make coffee at my apartment to save money.)

This NY Times article mentioned websites such as I Hate Starbucks.com and We Hate Starbucks.com. I checked out both sites. I Hate Starbucks.com is in dire need of a web designer. I'm not a fan of white text on a black background. I could only spend ten seconds there.

There are some interesting yet impractical ideas on We Hate Starbucks (the web address is not actually wehatestarbucks.com.)

Have you heard of the game Starbucks Musical Chairs? It seems like a bit of a pain in the ass and I'm not sure how it sticks anything to "the man."

The rules involve buying a coffee at a mom-and-pop shop and disguising your cup with a Starbucks sticker. Players then keep inconspicuously switching seats in order to gain points and the first person to hit 100 points stands up and screams, "Help me! I've been Starbucked!" And then all of the players with their disguised drinks get up and leave.

The only reasonable tactic on We Hate Starbucks is the simple download of a letter titled, "Dear Coffee Drinker." The idea is to deliver it to folks sitting in a Starbucks or slap it up on the window in front of customers.

Here is one example of a few of the anti-Starbucks arguments made in the short letter:

1- Starbucks farming techniques are unsustainable and damaging to the environment, the crops wipe out bio-diversity and the countries that they buy their coffee from (Guatemala, Indonesia etc) don't enforce any strong environmental regulations. So even if Starbucks released statements about their commitment to the ecology and dislike for chemicals, they are not carried out. This is not likely to improve with the WTO in its current state of slashing all hindrance to big business.



(The website does note that in the last two years Starbucks has started to offer some official Fair Trade coffee.)

I'll admit I'm seduced by the sameness of every Starbucks. I know how my drinks will taste. I've grown to like my name on a cup. If I get lost and I see a Starbucks, I immediately feel safe. And for some reason I've bought into the fact that the baristas are happy and protected with their health insurance from working only part-time! But I think it's time for me to make a stand. No more Starbucks. From now on I'll support local business exclusively and write my own damn name on my cup.



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grrowler

grrowler

Sarasota, FL
October 2007

NOV 26, 2007 11:31 AM

whatever... I go every day because one of the guys working there is hot as fuck and just looking at him makes me smile...an I don't even like coffee. Hahaha..

Snowy

Snowy

United Kingdom
February 2007

NOV 26, 2007 12:08 PM

In London you pay roughly £2.50 ($5!) for a "Grande" (that's medium) coffee that's okay. I never drink coffee there, unless it's a gingerbread latte biggrin
Darn those are tasty smile

That said, I am a regular. I hang out there a lot with my friends.
Hot chocolate with whipped cream please.
£2. Okie doke biggrin

ogrebushi

ogrebushi

Delta, BC
March 2005

NOV 26, 2007 12:12 PM

The main reason i dont hit starbucks is the price , shit id rather hit timmy ho's and spend a 1.55 on an XL double double. I have family that drink from starbucks, 5.50 for a cup of coffee , i dont care if its all fancy, fer less thatn that i can get a pint frorm the local pub. The other reason i suppose is access to em, they're so damn retarded here. I have 3 in a 15 min drive from me... all at the same damn place, theres an actual starbucks in the mall, and kiddiecorner to that mall is a chapters with a starbucks and beside that chapters is a safeway with a starbucks. Any other one would be an addition 10 or 15 min drive

mingol

mingol

Singapore
July 2005

NOV 26, 2007 01:26 PM

oyaji said:

mingol said:

oyaji said:
I hasten to add that there are places in the United States that have successfully resisted the insidious spread of Starbucks. Berkeley, CA leaps to mind. Starbucks has a store or two near the BART station but has never been able to penetrate into the cafe-culture heartland closer to campus. Alhemdollah.


Ann Arbor, MI used to be like that too, but during the last few years things have started to change. When I was last there several of my friends complained about it.


In Berkeley, someone "complained" by throwing a brick through the window of one of the first Starbucks to open, which was on the outskirts of the gourmet ghetto. It was within sight of the entrance to Chez Panisse; scandalous.


There was a similar protest in A2, but instead of having a political grievance, the guy did it because he believed that the CIA had used radioactive waves to implant a microchip in his scrotum.

True story. surreal

MrCrisp

MrCrisp

I'm lost
August 2004

NOV 26, 2007 01:54 PM

oyaji said:
I hasten to add that there are places in the United States that have successfully resisted the insidious spread of Starbucks. Berkeley, CA leaps to mind. Starbucks has a store or two near the BART station but has never been able to penetrate into the cafe-culture heartland closer to campus. Alhemdollah.


because berkeley is full of stinky hippies.

dude, when was the last time you were in berkeley? last time i was there there were 2 starbucks on shattuck alone.

zolta

zolta

Pierrefonds, QC
June 2005

NOV 26, 2007 04:37 PM

whine whine whine so typical. before starbucks the coffee sold in the independent places sucked. like up here what do we have? tim horton's with their watered down crap. the reason why the independents are out of business is because they had a lousy product. if Starbucks sucks like so many here say it does how come they are still around and all the good places are gone?

Personally I like Roosters, small, independent, good and the women working that are all babes.

MrStitches

MrStitches

Brooklyn, NY
November 2003

NOV 26, 2007 04:42 PM

zolta said:
whine whine whine so typical. before starbucks the coffee sold in the independent places sucked.



Bullshit.


if Starbucks sucks like so many here say it does how come they are still around and all the good places are gone?



I dunno, why are American Idol, McDonalds, the Saw series of movies, or Coors light still around? Because people will buy basically anything, especially if you make it easy for them.

StarBelliedBoy

StarBelliedBoy

Philadelphia, PA
December 2003

NOV 26, 2007 04:46 PM

zolta said:
the reason why the independents are out of business is because they had a lousy product.



Your logic: it is flawless.


Seriously, with that attitude, why are you even on this website? This is not the place for you.

bean

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

NOV 26, 2007 04:55 PM

zolta said:
whine whine whine so typical. before starbucks the coffee sold in the independent places sucked. like up here what do we have? tim horton's with their watered down crap. the reason why the independents are out of business is because they had a lousy product. if Starbucks sucks like so many here say it does how come they are still around and all the good places are gone?



Holy flashbacks Batman.

Here's an exchange I had with someone three and a half years ago:

bean said:
It's not as simple as whether or not the independent shops have good coffee. Starbucks forces out competition through forcible real estate practices. Like I said earlier:

Take this passage from a very thorough document on the history and business practices of Starbucks prepared by the Thunderbird Graduate School for International Management.

It said:
"The company was widely considered ruthless in its real estate practices. Practices included paying premiums over existing rental prices to push square footage prices up, retaining closed properties to prevent competitor entry, and generally aggressive property negotiations."



Basically, they'd literally buy their competitors out of business. But like I said earlier, while this is a dispicable and unfair practice, there are a lot more reasons to like Starbucks than to hate them. I'm not going to repost all of that though, if you're curious you can go back to page 2.

[Edited on Mar 15, 2004 by bean]





Nobody seems to have bothered to click the link Shalome posted, so here's the whole bloody thing. From earlier in the same thread as the comment quoted above:

bean said:

Thistle said:
I don't like Starbucks because most independent coffee shops make much better coffee, play better music, have a better ambience, and aren't corporations. I think the general hatred of them comes from them being on like every street corner.



Yep...and the fact that they are on every street corner puts all those great little coffee shops that we love so much out of business. I've seen several of my favorite coffee shops go under when Starbucks opened up right across the fucking street.

Take this passage from a very thorough document on the history and business practices of Starbucks prepared by the Thunderbird Graduate School for International Management:
"The company was widely considered ruthless in its real estate practices. Practices included paying premiums over existing rental prices to push square footage prices up, retaining closed properties to prevent competitor entry, and generally aggressive property negotiations. The refusal to franchise allowed the firm to pursue real estate and store proliferation strategies which did not conflict with corporate goals; all stores were Starbucks-owned and operated, and therefore 'turf' was not an issue."

On the other hand, though, they've done a lot of really good work to ensure that coffee farmers worldwide earn fair wages and have decent living conditions. From the same document as the above passage:
"Starbucks was a regular and growing giver, supporting relief organizations such as CARE, the nonprofit international relief organization, as well as providing direct support to farmers and farm communities around the world. For example, Starbucks had contributed $43,000 in 2001 to the construction of a health clinic and school in Guatemala and a health clinic in East Timor. The company was also providing aid in a variety of ways to the improvement of coffee processing facilities in a number of the countries of origin."

Starbucks also supports certified Fair Trade coffee buying practices. If that doesn't mean anything substantial to you (it didn't to me until recently) this might help you get an idea of what that means. From this story:
"The wholesale price for Arabic beans, the type used by specialty coffee roasters, is about 51 cents a pound. Fair Trade growers are paid $1.26 per pound for their beans. All the money goes to the farmer, not to a wholesaler or middleman." That's a tad misleading, since the actual price is negotiated with the individual co-op by the buyer, but it's representative of the value of Fair Trade practices over traditional wholesale purchasing.

They also enter into long-term (3 to 5 year) contracts with growers to ensure that growers have capital during tough times, and provide financial assistance in times of stress. They provided financing for more than 1.2 million pounds of coffee in 2002 (205 farmers received pre-harvest financing, 691 postharvest financing). This financing would be difficult if not impossible for growers to procure if not for the Starbucks loan guarantee programs.

As much as I hate the fact that Starbucks forces their employees to fit a certain aesthetic, disregard local customs and cultural forces during international expansion, and force their competitors out of the market altogether with brutal real estate practices, I have to admit that the fact that they work so hard to enrich the lives of traditionally underpaid worldwide coffee growers is more important. So I'd say they are, as a company, more positive than negative.



Emphasis added so people might actually read it. If you doubt anything in that paragraph, please go back up and read the whole thing I wrote.

herbancowboy

herbancowboy

Houston, TX
June 2004

NOV 26, 2007 05:06 PM

zolta said:
whine whine whine so typical. before starbucks the coffee sold in the independent places sucked. like up here what do we have? tim horton's with their watered down crap.


Do you know what "independent" means, genius? I don't think a multi-national chain with at least 3,079 locations counts as "independent." You might want to check your water supply while you're at it--I think it's making you retarded.

If Starbucks sucks like so many here say it does how come they are still around and all the good places are gone?


Because they have a lot of money to spend on branding you. Because they have the money to operate at a loss until their competition folds. Because they are such large buyers of wholesale coffee that they set their own terms and reap a huge profit. Because they can collude with other large corporations such as Barnes & Noble and Safeway to proliferate their corporate monoculture.

[Edit] Also, if a thing's popularity reveals its quality, then Britney Spears is an awesome singer.

herbancowboy

herbancowboy

Houston, TX
June 2004

NOV 26, 2007 05:21 PM

bean said:
the fact that they work so hard to enrich the lives of traditionally underpaid worldwide coffee growers is more important. So I'd say they are, as a company, more positive than negative.



Don't believe the hype.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Starbucks admitted in 2001 that Fair Trade coffee constitutes less than .1% of their total sales. Industry statistics show that approximately 75% of all Fair Trade coffee now produced in the world has to be dumped at a loss on the commercial market because companies like Starbucks are only buying tiny quantities.

LostLucy

LostLucy

USA
December 2006

NOV 26, 2007 05:24 PM

bean said:
Holy flashbacks Batman.

Here's an exchange I had with someone three and a half years ago:

bean said:
It's not as simple as whether or not the independent shops have good coffee. Starbucks forces out competition through forcible real estate practices. Like I said earlier:

Take this passage from a very thorough document on the history and business practices of Starbucks prepared by the Thunderbird Graduate School for International Management.

It said:
"The company was widely considered ruthless in its real estate practices. Practices included paying premiums over existing rental prices to push square footage prices up, retaining closed properties to prevent competitor entry, and generally aggressive property negotiations."



Basically, they'd literally buy their competitors out of business. But like I said earlier, while this is a dispicable and unfair practice, there are a lot more reasons to like Starbucks than to hate them. I'm not going to repost all of that though, if you're curious you can go back to page 2.

[Edited on Mar 15, 2004 by bean]





Nobody seems to have bothered to click the link Shalome posted, so here's the whole bloody thing. From earlier in the same thread as the comment quoted above:

bean said:

Thistle said:
I don't like Starbucks because most independent coffee shops make much better coffee, play better music, have a better ambience, and aren't corporations. I think the general hatred of them comes from them being on like every street corner.



Yep...and the fact that they are on every street corner puts all those great little coffee shops that we love so much out of business. I've seen several of my favorite coffee shops go under when Starbucks opened up right across the fucking street.

Take this passage from a very thorough document on the history and business practices of Starbucks prepared by the Thunderbird Graduate School for International Management:
"The company was widely considered ruthless in its real estate practices. Practices included paying premiums over existing rental prices to push square footage prices up, retaining closed properties to prevent competitor entry, and generally aggressive property negotiations. The refusal to franchise allowed the firm to pursue real estate and store proliferation strategies which did not conflict with corporate goals; all stores were Starbucks-owned and operated, and therefore 'turf' was not an issue."

On the other hand, though, they've done a lot of really good work to ensure that coffee farmers worldwide earn fair wages and have decent living conditions. From the same document as the above passage:
"Starbucks was a regular and growing giver, supporting relief organizations such as CARE, the nonprofit international relief organization, as well as providing direct support to farmers and farm communities around the world. For example, Starbucks had contributed $43,000 in 2001 to the construction of a health clinic and school in Guatemala and a health clinic in East Timor. The company was also providing aid in a variety of ways to the improvement of coffee processing facilities in a number of the countries of origin."

Starbucks also supports certified Fair Trade coffee buying practices. If that doesn't mean anything substantial to you (it didn't to me until recently) this might help you get an idea of what that means. From this story:
"The wholesale price for Arabic beans, the type used by specialty coffee roasters, is about 51 cents a pound. Fair Trade growers are paid $1.26 per pound for their beans. All the money goes to the farmer, not to a wholesaler or middleman." That's a tad misleading, since the actual price is negotiated with the individual co-op by the buyer, but it's representative of the value of Fair Trade practices over traditional wholesale purchasing.

They also enter into long-term (3 to 5 year) contracts with growers to ensure that growers have capital during tough times, and provide financial assistance in times of stress. They provided financing for more than 1.2 million pounds of coffee in 2002 (205 farmers received pre-harvest financing, 691 postharvest financing). This financing would be difficult if not impossible for growers to procure if not for the Starbucks loan guarantee programs.

As much as I hate the fact that Starbucks forces their employees to fit a certain aesthetic, disregard local customs and cultural forces during international expansion, and force their competitors out of the market altogether with brutal real estate practices, I have to admit that the fact that they work so hard to enrich the lives of traditionally underpaid worldwide coffee growers is more important. So I'd say they are, as a company, more positive than negative.



Emphasis added so people might actually read it. If you doubt anything in that paragraph, please go back up and read the whole thing I wrote.



and earlier post

Salome said:
Starbucks openly practices something officially called "cannibalism": Corporate opens Starbucks franchises in a particular area one after another until the franchises start cannibalizing business from one another. By this time, the sheer ubiquity of Starbucks, and the the comforting sameness you mentioned, have almost always obliterated the mom-and-pop coffeeshops and given other chain coffeehouses in the area a serious hurt.

It might be business practice, but it's not for me. Fuck Starbucks. Their coffee is weak as shit anyway.





they are part of the chaining of america. Big stores like the Gap and Banana republic and pottery barn all attempt the same corporate homogeny.

hellomrworld

hellomrworld

Westbrook, ME
December 2003

NOV 26, 2007 05:56 PM

starbucks is only amazingly common in upper class america .. lived uptown in NYC and had better coffee at any bodega or caribbean resteraunt ..

Have a Freaky Bean Coffee Shop in Westbrook, Maine and its very, very good .. actually opened by two ex-Starbucks barista ...

But there are worse places to find a bathroom and a seat in NYC

TaoAndCoffee

TaoAndCoffee

Stoney Creek, ON
June 2007

NOV 26, 2007 06:12 PM

herbancowboy said:

bean said:
the fact that they work so hard to enrich the lives of traditionally underpaid worldwide coffee growers is more important. So I'd say they are, as a company, more positive than negative.



Don't believe the hype.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Starbucks admitted in 2001 that Fair Trade coffee constitutes less than .1% of their total sales. Industry statistics show that approximately 75% of all Fair Trade coffee now produced in the world has to be dumped at a loss on the commercial market because companies like Starbucks are only buying tiny quantities.



You're quoting a five-year-old article with a six-year-old statistic? Starbucks regularly informs the public that it's the world's largest buyer of Fair Trade certified coffee, which, while it is a bit of unabashed back-patting, couldn't be announced if it was a lie. Their average price paid for a pound of coffee is 75% aboce commodity. They give farmers incentives for paying fair wages, treating workers fairly and being considerate to the environment. The fact that all of their coffee isn't "certified Fair Trade" is a technicality.

TaoAndCoffee

TaoAndCoffee

Stoney Creek, ON
June 2007

NOV 26, 2007 06:18 PM

Toku666 said:

SixBoxes said:
Are you guys going to root for McDonald's in their attempt to bring down the evil Starbucks? Or are you going to have some kind of snobgasm over the prospect of this corporate clash of the titans leading to financial suffering for both evil megacompanies?



Way to brush that tar, yo.

I think that oyaji put it most succinctly when he opined that it is obnoxious and saddening to see local color turn into a strip mall that invariably contains a Starbucks.

There are users here who will probably have that snobgasm, but so what? Go pick on US citizens somewhere else, man. Your valiant noncomformist stance is awesome.



If you weren't so busy patronizing me, I might be able to figure out what the hell you just typed there.

So I'll talk about something else entirely. Seems to me that a large number of independent coffee shops do themselves no favours with their shittastic attitudes toward customers. I've read comment after comment about people rolling their eyes and clucking their tongues when a customer comes into their obviously superior coffee establishment and sully it with utterances such as "Caramel Macchiato" and "Vanilla Bean Frapuccino" as if they're starring in the coffee equivalent to High Fidelity. It's not an exclusive phenomenon. If I had a nickel for every customer who orders a "large double double" at my Starbucks, I'd retire tonight. Rather, we all just grin, hand them a Grande House Blend with some room at the top, and send them on their merry way.

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