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Starbucks is Evil
Elite coffee addicts around the United States are bemoaning Wednesday’s announcement that 600 Starbucks company-owned stores would be closed. It’s just more bad news in the literal waterfall of disturbing economic news that has befallen us this past year or two. With some in severe Latte denial and others in a state of somber caffeine withdrawal, I have no such feelings, except sympathy for the thousands of Starbucks employees who will join the rapidly growing ranks of the jobless. You may be wondering, “But Bill, it’s Starbucks! What’s with the cavalier attitude?” My answer is simple and straightforward. Starbucks is evil.
People are freaking out because they’re paying over $4 a gallon for gas, the very thing which propels them through life, feeds them, and gets them to and from work. But they think nothing of shelling out the equivalent of over $25 a gallon for coffee in a take-out cup with a logo, even if the logo is so cosmic. You talk about the obscene profit margins of the oil industry, how about the designer coffee industry? It costs only 25 to 30 cents to produce a cup of take-out coffee, cup and lid included*. Starbucks may work well in the affluent and white-collar neighborhoods where the see-and-be-seen culture is much more likely to blind customers to the fact they are getting gouged at the cash register. But when Starbucks got greedy and started trying to penetrate the blue-collar neighborhoods by showing up in strip centers and anchor stores, they were barking up the wrong tree. Middle and lower class people spend their money very differently, because economics dictates their lifestyle. When you can make that same cup of coffee for a few cents, on a coffee maker that costs under $40, why are you going to pay some corporate elitist $3.50 a cup? The Europeans have it right when it comes to coffee shops. Except for high-rent locations like along the Champs Elysees in Paris or in fancy hotels, the coffee shop is a place where people gather to enjoy good coffee at a reasonable price, and socialize. The key difference when comparing the form of socializing which takes place in the Starbucks’ closed-minded WIFI atmosphere, and that of a European café is that often the euro café is located in the center of the town or village, and is the natural meeting place for locals to intermingle with their neighbors on a daily basis, at anytime of the day. The coffee is the secondary product offered, with the most important aspect of going to the café being the daily dose of social interaction it provides. It is truly the regular customer, entering the establishment “where everybody knows your name.” I have been in cafes in France, where each person who enters, shakes hands and greets each person already in the place. And I mean everyone, even me, when they had no idea who I was or where I came from, because to do otherwise would be poor manners. Some of my favorite euro cafes, offering a wide variety of atmosphere and products are in the smaller towns throughout France and the Netherlands. Those places have been there for decades, and will continue to survive long after the last Starbucks coffee cup decomposes in a landfill, and why? Because there is a strong need to socialize, but absolutely no need to pay $3.50 for a good cup of coffee. William S. James, Hyped-up on caffeine
* Based on figures from http://www.rimag.com/article/CA6520575.html |
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