Letters to the Editor
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@Patrick, I'm not standing up for them
Rather, I'm adding facts to the discussion. Many people like facts.
Is that the least they could do? No. They could do less; many other companies do. You still haven't said why you think they treat employees like "crap."
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I'm just puzzled
...why anyone ever expected a corporation/franchise to deliver anything authentic, healthy or even enjoyable. Their mission is to make money, folks - if you want good coffee, get it from someone who cares.
Franchising - especially the border jumping kind - is a disease that needs to be stamped out. ASAP.
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Schultz needs to take a road trip...
not give a CEO mandated pep talk when it's not the employees' fault! And I suggest that he drive through Italy on the Autostrada and walk through Venice and find a little espresso bar off St Mark's square that serves Illy espresso. Then he will feel the streamlined, brisk joy of tasty, sweet espresso at the Autogrills and cafes where espresso is a way of life, not an "experience." Civilized, in little white espresso cups on little white espresso cup saucers with little metal spoons for stirring in the sugar. So-so taste aside, a doppio in a little paper cup looks lost. There's your lack of espresso art.
And out the door in minutes instead of standing in line for way too long.
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You know there's something wrong with their business model...
...when they publish a 27-page booklet on how to order their product, and sell to-go cups with little stickers you paste on them to indicate exactly what you drink. (I am not making this up.)
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SAH
The funny this is, a lot of the partners are looking forward to the event tonight. Not everyone, but we all had lots of notice so we could clear this evening for what will amount to a three-hour paid party in many respects.
At my own store, no one is upset about this evening. In fact, we'll be including a couple of our regular customers at our event because they're curious and they're our friends and it's not like it's a big secret. We're not the Freemasons or something. We're just employees at a store learning some new things during typical working hours, for which we'll be paid.
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Pretty balanced
Manjoo is just being fair in his comments so far, Patrick Morgan. In fact, I was going to reply to some of the comments in the same manner but Manjoo beat me to it. I'm no fan of Starbucks, and I buy coffee from local shops, but some could afford to be a little more nuanced in their attitude towards the chain. Its presence DOES have a tendency to drive up business for mom and pop shops, and it does treat its employees better than most other corporations--even those that make ridiculous profits. Manjoo wanted to point these things out, and it makes the conversation more balanced.
So yeah, we all know corporations are bad, etc., etc. But some of the vitriol here makes me feel like some are just trying too hard.
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@ manjoo
Are yo aware that Starbucks' employees are not allowed to unionize? Why do you think that is?
I've known folks who worked at Starbucks, and 7$ an hour is not a living wage.
Also, just having to wear those humiliating uniforms is employee-abuse enough, don't you think? Well of course you don't. I suppose you feel safe in a Starbucks, you don't have to worry about people with little upward fiscal mobility bothering you.
Anyway, Farhad, I generally like your writing but this time you're just contributing to the Starbucks hype. Perhaps we'll just have to not see eye to eye on this one. Yes, I despise Starbucks with all my heart, I admit. They should not be praised or even mentioned -let them buy their own advertising. I honestly would like every Starbucks to disappear from the face of the Earth, and I'll not be sad that anyone goes without their double-whatever-whatever-frivolity.
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Oh, NO!
You mean I won't be able to spend my evening hanging in a super-cool Starbucks fiddling with my super-cool iPhone?!? Guess I'll have to hang out at the Apple Store.
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Uniformed and Overwrought
If by "humiliating uniforms" you mean the requirement that our shirt be sorta white and our legs covered by something black (pants, shorts, skirt), um, yeah, such cruelty. On Fridays during certain seasonal promotions we may have to wear a special t-shirt, which is sometimes a color has some words printed on it. Oh, the indignity!
Unless you're referring to the green aprons, which, I admit, are an abomination unto the Lord. Or maybe they're just green. (Except for those elistist black aprons! So bourgois!)
Good grief, could you possibly be more melodramatic?
As for the wages, I can only speak for my own area, but Starbucks pays its baristas better than the baristas at all the area chains and independents. I started at $9.05 and now make $11.15. It's not a lot, but I've only been their a year, and the starting rate was a dollar an hour higher than the next best place in town. Plus, there's that, you know, health insurance, which none of the indies around provide. I suppose I could rend my humiliating garment over the fact that I'm not earning a plumber's wage, but then I'm not a plumber. Just a barista paid better than the typical barista. Oh, the humanity.
I will grant you might be right about the union thing. I dunno. It's never come up, but I will check the HR policies and see what I find.
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"Jedimaster" post ... 11:01
You get a red star from me...
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psh
Patrick,
If $7 is not a "living wage" then how are so many people all across the US living on it? In Portland, OR, where I used to live, there was a citywide waiting list for jobs at starbucks that took about 6 months to cycle through. There, they could easily have lowered wages because the labor supply was so plentiful, but they did not. Frankly, if I wasn't such a "conscious" shareholder, I'd be upset.
As for the person who complained about the burnt taste of starbucks coffee, It's because the coffee is overroasted. Starbucks has always overroasted their coffee for whatever reason. While according to coffee experts, this makes it bad, many people, including myself, sort of like how overroasted coffee tastes. Kinda like how some people prefer somewhat melted "goopy" ice cream. Personal preference.