TheAgitator.com
Indie shops take on the green giant
Thursday, August 21st, 2008A few years ago it was common to hear lamentations about Starbucks moving in and crushing the neighborhood independent shops. An article in yesterday’s Seattle Times points out that perception is catching up to reality with a more balanced take on Starbucks’ influence:
Collectively, independent and small-chain coffeehouses have the largest share of coffee and doughnut sales in the U.S., with 34 percent of the market in 2006, according to a new report from the Chicago research firm Mintel. Starbucks has the next largest share at 29 percent.
“When you talk to all the detractors whose critique is that Starbucks ruined the culture of coffeehouses, you’d get the impression there were all these coffeehouses and then Starbucks came in and destroyed them,” said Kim Fellner, a longtime national labor and community organizer whose book “Wrestling with Starbucks: Conscience, Capital, Cappuccino” came out last month.
While there are some examples of Starbucks putting independents out of business, she said, “you find far more where people who look at Starbucks and say, ‘They’re being successful. I could be, too.’ ”
The popularity of Starbucks has helped spread coffeehouse culture beyond university communities and Italian neighborhoods, Fellner said.
Starbucks has fallen on hard times lately and lost its focus on coffee quality a long time ago, but the company deserves great credit for raising the bar for American coffee culture and bringing espresso drinks and single origin beans to a mass audience. Many of today’s indie shop customers got their first taste of decent cappuccino at a Starbucks.
I had a similar take on the company in a post titled “A libertarian goes to Starbucks.” For a more in-depth assessment, Taylor Clark’s Starbucked is a fun, informative history.
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Arty-ass coffee places I go to for dates, and to hang out with my friends and to see the awful, HORRIFIC live music that Central Florida offers.
I go to Starbucks whenever I am in need of a milkshake, or a pick-me-up when working on finals.
Starbucks never takes my money away from the Arty-Ass Coffee places just as a grocery store never takes my money away from local restaurants.
I can’t ever think of Starbuck’s without thinking of the Kid From Brooklyn’s take on them. Cracks me up every time.
“She said that’s seven dollars! Plus she had the fuckin’ balls to have a fuckin’ tip cup over there . . . she expects me to give her a fuckin’ tip! I said seven fuckin’ dollars for a fuckin’ coffee and a piece of fuckin’ pound cake? Fuckin’ stick it!“
Google that shit. You won’t be disappointed.
My primary complaint about Starbucks is that their coffee tastes like ass. I just like regular old black coffee. I think most folks dilute the Starbucks coffee down with cream and sugar. It is tolerable after said dilution, but not really how I like coffee. The secondary complaint I would have is the high prices.
I never really understood the anti-Starbucks crowd. As I understand it they pay their employees fairly well (given their skill level and all that).
Now Duncan Donuts coffee, that’s some good stuff.
“Many of today’s indie shop customers got their first taste of decent cappuccino at a Starbucks.”
Starbucks does not have decent cappuccino. I lived in LaMaddalena, Sardinia for 2 years. I got my first taste of good cappuccino while I was there. Starbucks coffee tastes burned all the time, no matter what they do with it.
I agree with the Dunkin Donuts comment, though. They have always had consistently good coffee.
A wonderful post. Given the especially socially-conscious business practices of Starbucks, it’s amazed me how people still manage to villify them. I live in Seattle, and I’m not a coffee drinker. Starbucks does have some damn fine black tea, however. The last time I was in one, I impolitely asked the enthusiastic college student behind the counter how much he made. He wasn’t phased at all by the enquiry, proudly exclaiming, “$12 an hour, with full benefits, and I only work part-time to accommodate my class schedule.”
Starbucks is a credit to every community they enter, burnt-tasting coffee or not. Did you realize it’s standard practice for new Starbucks locations to establish a charity partnership with a local organization? So, when you see one Starbucks within a stone’s throw of another, don’t roll your eyes and groan – think of it as just one more local charity that’s being tended to.
I agree about the burnt taste and the prices, both are awful. But as with ever freedom loving person on the planet I neither have to purchase or drink their shit. I don’t care if anyone else does or not, their business not mine.
I’m fortunate enough to have thriving competition to Starbucks at home (if you can’t compete, you don’t deserve to be in business) but any possible “starbucks panic” is forgiven by the way they’ve made it possible to get drinkable coffee while traveling. Even if there isn’t a starbucks store nearby they’ve forced the local chains to pay attention to quality, which is a huge improvement over the radiator fluid which was common when I was a kid.