Starbucks has released the big list of stores it will be closing. People seem really torn up about this, and to be honest I am struggling to figure out why. I agree it is tragic and sad that there will now be thousands of displaced Stabucks employees, but I guess I’m struggling with the worth of those jobs versus the monstrosity that is that company as a whole and the good that will inevitably come out of the shedding of even a few hundred Starbucks locations.
CEO Howard Schultz recently stated this decision is being made because of “poor real estate decisions”. Wake up, people! Major retail corporations do this all the time (Hello Wal-Mart, Blockbuster). They move into an area near a competitor (more often than not a locally owned store) specifically to put that competitor out of business. Once they do and/or once they actually have to deal with a rent increase, taxation, or some kind of level of giving back to the local community, they close the store leaving nothing in their wake but the rents that THEY helped to increase and a wave of locally-owned businesses which they succeeded in shutting down.
Have you ever wondered why there is often one Starbucks right across the street from another? This is why. They move in specifically to put your locally owned coffee shops out of business, and once they do they turn around and move back out again, with little care to the local economy and community they are ruining. This all goes without mentioning that in addition to this, Starbucks has been a repeated offender when it comes to under-paying it’s bean farmers. The fact alone that Starbucks, unfortunately synonymous with coffee, has been one of the last to get on board with the Fair Trade agreement which guarantees a fair wage and ethical treatment to coffee farmers, should be enough convincing alone for people to stop supporting them.
I think the underlying tragedy here has probably been the many small family-owned businesses that Starbucks has helped to close down over the years. They knew exactly what they were doing when they made those “poor real estate decisions”. They never planned on leaving any of those locations open, and I can’t believe that anyone would think otherwise. Do you really think they NEEDED one 40 feet away from another? I really wish people would put more thought into the often unspoken casualties of supporting their local Starbucks/Blockbuster/WalMart/Costco, etc.
You have a voice as a consumer and where you choose to spend your dollar does affect everything. Say no to the homogenization of America. Please support your neighbors and shop locally whenever possible.
