The Bitter Bean Debate

Many of my friends are lamenting the fact that Starbucks has parked itself in our small town. The location happens to be right down the street from a local drive through coffee house that we all patronize. While some of my friends have even talked about protesting the opening of Starbucks, I’m going to present (somewhat reluctantly) another side of the story.

I used to work at Starbucks in the early 1990s in Oak Park, IL. I got paid $8.00 an hour plus we shared a pool of tips that equaled about $25 a week for my portion. Starbucks provided full health care and dental coverage for part time work (20 hours a week). I was always given a flexible schedule to accommodate school, and all the employees got to take home a pound of coffee a week as part of our compensation. The company also matched employee contributions to local charities (although this has been in the news lately, some organizations have been on the right, but this is the employee’s choice, not Starbucks doing). I also met some incredible people while I worked at Starbucks – several of which I’m still in touch with. This has nothing to do with Starbucks’ business practices, but I have fond memories of some of the fun times we had at the store.

I am not pro nor anti Starbucks (at least as of this writing). Any corporation that takes advantage of or oppresses its workers should be called to the table. Wal-Mart, for example, does not provide benefits for most of its employees. The ripple effect of this gets dumped on individual states (taxpayers) that end up picking up the tab. Wal-Mart also has the volume to offer products at extremely low prices, running the local ma and pa stores out of business; Starbucks products, in contrast, are not as cheap. But this is not a new argument (there are no new arguments in this debate).

There are certainly other issues in the Starbucks debate that should be considered, such as where is the coffee coming from? What about the growers? Is it fair trade? Is Starbucks purposely pinpointing certain demographic/geographic locations for opening stores just to run existing local (or non local) coffee places out of business? Those are legitimate concerns. If Starbucks prices were really low, and endangered running local businesses out of business, then I would certainly think differently about buying my coffee there. I used to tell people that Starbucks paid me well and provided me with insurance, which allowed me to spend my money at the independent coffee shops (and I did). If most people I knew never shopped at any chain or corporate company – like not going to chain grocery stores and only buying from local cooperatives or farmers – then I would think differently. But where does the argument stop? What grocery stores do people go to? What clothing stores? Electronics? Video rental? Book stores? I really only know of 2 or 3 people that truly buy only from independent businesses. Most people are hypocrites in this regard – including me. I hate to admit it, but I’m a well-meshed cog in capital consumerism. I do, however, refuse to buy at certain chains, such as Wal-Mart, because of the way they treat employees and the low-cost products they offer making it impossible for local businesses to compete (the low-paid factory workers from other countries that make the products is a whole other part of this pie). I also refuse to eat at the Cracker Barrel restaurants because of the company’s ill treatment towards gays and lesbians.

So, am I happy about Starbucks being here? I don’t really care. If I was faced with having to make a choice between gas station coffee and Starbucks – I would go to Starbucks. I hate the McDonaldization of America just as much as anyone else, but I don’t see a stop to it in the near future. The U.S. is strip mall city – and it’s not just America anymore. How do we make a change? A non-violent revolution would be a good start, I just don't think I have the energy for it. Personally, I buy Starbucks coffee for home use because I do like the coffee and I don’t like the crappy grinders the local coffee places have and I don’t like grinding my own coffee. I go to our local drive through coffee place for the times I’m on the run, and I go to our other local sit-down coffee places when I’m in the mood for just hanging out, listening to some music or working. So, I guess I support all the coffee places in town. Fickle? I suppose I am. We all pick and choose our battles, and protesting Starbucks is not a battle I’m willing to take on unless they start venturing into practices I think are blatantly wrong.

Comments are welcome.