9 Reasons to Stay Out of Starbucks
Starbucks: people either love ‘em or loathe ‘em. My husband likes their coffee and admires their business brains. I, on the other hand, can’t stand them for their homogenized, yuppie style. Having grown up in grunge-era Seattle, once a land of artsy coffee shops crammed with kitschy sofas and local color, cookie-cutter Starbucks look to me like a department store: void of soul and chock-full of useless merchandise.
But how bad is Starbucks, really? I decided to find out.
1. Clean water is such a precious commodity in the world these days, but Starbucks didn’t seem to care. Their “leave the tap running all day” policy created an eco-scandal to the tune of 23 million litres wasted every day. Less than a year later, they’re installing water-saving faucets which purport to reduce water wastage by 150 gallons per day, per store. Note, they only changed their wasteful ways after they got caught.
2. Although some people claim that having a Starbucks in the neighborhood is actually good for local mom & pop cafes, the long-running belief is that Starbucks turns the uniquely local neighborhood vibe into cookie-cutter corporate…well, crap. Perhaps it’s really just a matter of taste, but most of your dollars spent at a Starbucks location will end up in the pockets of distant executives – and not circulate in your local economy.
3. Ever keen to new marketing strategies, Starbucks has decided to co-opt the unique neighborhood vibe. What you think is your local indie cafe might actually be a Starbucks in disguise. To try and get the business of economic locavores, Starbucks has sent out scouts to cop the look and feel of various neighborhoods, then create a “unique” coffeeshop under a different name. Some might call this a brilliant business strategy, but I think it’s pretty underhanded.
4. Then there was the Ethiopian coffee debacle. In 2006, the Ethiopian government attempted to trademark regional coffees such as Sidamo and Harar because these specialty brews sell for up to $26 a pound, with only about $1 getting back to the Ethiopian coffee farmers. Starbucks, working through the National Coffee Association, blocked Ethiopia’s trademark bid, helping ensure the continuation of poverty in an already impoverished region.
5. Did you hear about the tip scandal? A former (and clearly disgruntled) Starbucks barista successfully sued the corporation on behalf of all California baristas in a class action law suit. Starbucks was ordered to pay $100 million to baristas to make up for tips that had been given to shift supervisors. It sounds like the ultimate low blow, but there is a grey area here: although California law prohibits managers and supervisors from receiving tips, Starbucks’ shift supervisors do help customers and make coffee. They’re paid much more than the baristas; do they also deserve a cut of the tips?
6. After years of customers haggling them for recycling bins, or at least recyclable cups, Starbucks has finally launched a recycling pilot program. Puh-lease…coffee shops the world over have already had recycling and composting systems in place for years. Starbucks should have been able to do better, and faster – why has it taken them so long to jump on the greenwagon?
7. Starbucks has decided to increase their purchases of Fair Trade coffee – but that’s only after years of pressure from Fair Trade groups. Considering that the worldwide coffee trade is a huge source of oppression and poverty in third world countries, buying Fair Trade goes far to support better wages and working conditions for coffee farmers. So far, only a small percentage of Starbucks coffee will actually be Fair Trade Certified, but they’ve still created a marketing campaign around it. I’d expect better from a large corporation; since Starbucks is large enough for the world to pay attention to its products, they could push some powerful change by using their influence for the greater good.
8. No matter what they do to be a little more green, if Starbucks won’t pour coffee into a reusable mug, they’ll never win my heart. My husband informed me of his own infuriating Starbucks experience where they refused to fill his travel mug, instead handing him his latte in a disposable paper cup and telling him he could fill his travel mug himself. He’s not the only one who’s had eco efforts thwarted like this at Starbucks.
9. And besides, McDonald’s beat Starbucks in a coffee taste test. Ouch!
So what do you think? Personally, I think Starbucks can do better and set a positive example for the coffee business in general, but they won’t do that unless they feel the heat from customers.
Image: D3 San Francisco
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25 Comments
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 am
Wow, that was eye-opening, even as my Sumatra is brewing upstairs. Bought it out of convenience, which is the usual way I end up at Starbucks rather than my preferred Blue Bottle Coffee. I agree with your observations about the ambiance. In my hood, and I suppose in others, Starbucks is not just a place to buy coffee but a gathering spot for students and lap top users. A culture has developed around these corporate coffee houses. Truth be told, I don’t think the coffee is that good. It’s always about the convenience when I need a fix. This makes me think again. Thanks, Sarah.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:48 am
Listen, there’s a simple solution to all of this. Stop blaming Starbucks for ruining your favorite java hut. Stop blaming Starbucks for not providing you with the appropriate level of hipster charm.
STOP DRINKING COFFEE. It’s bad for the environment, it’s far more toxic for your body than the traces of toxic chemicals you think are in non-organic food, it’s expensive, and you don’t need it.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:42 am
Yeah! Buy McDonald’s coffee instead — that’ll show ‘em.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 am
You’ve done great research here! I agree on many fronts – but in all fairness have to point out that Starbucks has developed a pretty amazing corporate social responsibility program. I’ve done some posts about when the good stuff of today is good enough to outweigh the indiscretions of the past (i.e. the running others out of business, running water etc.) and it’s a very fine line to be sure. Your point at the end is incredibly important though – consumers are KING and they DO need to make them feel the heat. All Starbucks brews in the UK and Europe are Fair Trade – but in the U.S., just a very small proportion. It’s up to us to demand different. More of my thoughts (would love to hear what you think!) here:
http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/?p=3257
http://www.justmeans.com/Letti...../3108.html
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Starbucks aint perfect, that’s for sure. Though it does seem a little unfair to criticise them for a cookie-cutter cafe layout in one breath and for creating bespoke stores to reflect the local neighbourhood feel in the next! Still you make some really good points – I didn’t know about the water wastage.
@Robb I have to disagree with you about coffee. I have visited numerous coffee farms all over the world. It’s definitely not bad for the environment and if we stopped drinking it we would be dooming millions of poor farmers – from Africa to Asia, and Papua New Guinea to Latin America – to extreme poverty.
Robusta beans, used for instant coffee, are not the most eco-friendly crop because it’s so commoditised and it’s often grown on large acreage without a lot of trees. But Arabica beans, used for espresso and quality drip coffee by the likes of Starbucks and others, are actually a very sustainable crop. Sustainable in environmental terms because they are grown in a mixed-crop farm and can coexist with shade trees for birds and vegetables and so on. Sustainable in social terms because it is the one cash crop accessible to poor farmers with a small acreage. Without coffee they would not be able to buy cooking oil, clothing, medicine, school fees etc.
Secondly, it’s not that toxic for your body. There are plenty of scientific studies showing moderate consumption is actually good for your body. Most nutritionists don’t think there is anything wrong with one or two cups a day.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Caitlin,
First, I reject the notion that coffee isn’t bad for the environment. It takes approximately 40 gallons of water to produce one cup of coffee, and we’d be naive in thinking that even “organically” grown coffee doesn’t involve some ancillary toxins. Simply put, there’s not really any such thing as sustainably grown coffee beans (on a scale that’s large enough to market – I make no presumptions about coffee grown and consumed locally). Additionally, all of these products need to be trucked or shipped like anything else, entailing additional harm to all ecosystems. Not to mention the fact that coffee beans grown and washed in Africa are contributing to a growing water crisis, especially for countries like Ethiopia and Uganda.
Second, your argument that we need to purchase coffee to support poor farmers is a little specious. Without getting into the ethical argument of whether an industry needs to be supported simply because people are currently employed in it regardless of whether or not it’s an industry consumers actually need (which coffee is not), we need to be honest about the reasons we buy coffee. You don’t buy coffee because your money supports some Central American farmer and his family. You buy coffee because it’s an addictive substance that’s become part of your routine. It’s about you, not them. If this weren’t the case, you would stop drinking coffee and just send your $10 a day to a family in Colombia and cut out the middle men altogether, right?
Third, in terms of health concerns, there is an equally impressive body of scientific research to suggest that coffee is bad for you (and not just caffeinated coffee – decaf is loaded with trichloroethylene, which is almost a plasticy substance that may actually be worse for you). Coffee has been shown to raise blood pressure and risk of heart attack, affect motor skills, increases aggression, and damages liver function. It overworks your adrenal glands, creates nutritional deficiencies and, perhaps most dangerously, combines with the hydrochloric acid in your stomach which causes your body to violently eject bile (hence the “flush” of your system after you drink it) and effectively poisons the lining in your stomach over time.
Granted, there’s room for debate on all these points – coffee’s not the devil, it won’t kill you at a young age or give you cancer as an adult – but I don’t think we should hide behind a vague reverence for the farmers who produce.
The world would be a better place if we didn’t drink it.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Robb, can you kindly point me to some of the studies you are referring to?
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
All good reasons for YOU not to go to Starbucks but looking at this week’s Newsweek highlighting the GREENEST big companies in American, Starbucks is no. 10. Not bad for a company you obviously hate so much.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Happy to – you need to read Caffeine Blues by Dr. Stephen A. Cherniske – it’s an easy read and pretty enlightening.
Flush out the bibliography and you’ll have a lot of what you need to know.
I’ve long since lost access to the links to a lot of these studies myself; not being in college anymore tends to do that.
Hopefully the book can clear some things up, but don’t take my word or his for it, really delve into the sources, I think it’ll be informative for you. Cheers.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
@Robb The water usage is an interesting point but I don’t really see how you connect excess water wastage with toxins in the coffee. They are two different things.
At the small holder level and particularly for Arabica, which needs a particular climate, coffee is not an irrigated crop and it is grown in parts of the world that have quite a lot of rainfall. I assume you are talking about the water used to process the cherry to green bean stage. In some countries the first wash and fermentation is done at farm level, while in other places it’s all done at the coffee exporter’s centralised facility. In my experience there doesn’t seem to be any one method for this but I have seen many impressive set-ups that filter the water and, in some cases, return it to the environment cleaner than it was to begin with.
All agriculture and all manufacturing uses water and coffee is not a particularly water-intensive crop as far as they go. While it may not strictly speaking be a “necessity” the same could be said for many other products, from chocolate to DVDs. (Why are you on the internet right now? Do you need to be on the internet to sustain life?). Unlike many things produced by humans, coffee at least does some good along the way.
You said: “You don’t buy coffee because your money supports some Central American farmer and his family. You buy coffee because it’s an addictive substance that’s become part of your routine. It’s about you, not them. If this weren’t the case, you would stop drinking coffee and just send your $10 a day to a family in Colombia and cut out the middle men altogether, right?”
No, that’s not the case at all. There have been times in my life when I’ve gone without coffee and I could do so again if I chose to. Yes, it’s part of my routine and I have some physical addiction but I choose not to break that because I passionately believe in the value of coffee as a force for good in the world. Yes, really.
I don’t think welfare helps in the long run. I would far rather support someone’s livelihood through business and trade than give them a handout, which simply creates dependency.
How many coffee farms and coffee processing plants have you visited in your life? I’m not saying you haven’t but I’m curious. I have visited dozens, on five continents. I have met the people I am talking about and I have an intimate understanding of how coffee affects their lives and how its absence would affect their lives.
Without coffee, small farmholdings all over the world would become unsustainable. Acreage farmers would be forced off their land, losing the ability to grow most of their own food, and contributing to the ranks of the urban poor in the world’s swelling slums. The land would be swallowed up by bigger agricultural firms owned by Westerners, or developed. You probably think I am exaggerating. I am not.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Caitlin: “(Why are you on the internet right now? Do you need to be on the internet to sustain life?)”
And that is what we call PWND.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Back to Starbucks… I have to admit I was pretty taken aback to see that the coffee concession inside the Forbidden City in Beijing was a Starbucks. (This was in 2003). Though given the general state of Chinese coffee as I experienced it, perhaps this was a good thing.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
If you are in Pittsburgh and would like one more reason to avoid Starbucks (…at least until the end of the G20 summit ..) Today in one of the Starbucks here someone replaced the supply of soap in the soap dispenser with a supply of urine!!
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:05 am
Like wine, findings on coffee fluctuate. It all depends on what you believe. I don’t drink coffee because I believe it’s good for the world. I like the taste and that “flushing” process that Robb described. But I do often wonder if it works so efficiently to loosen the bowels, what else is it doing? Decaf for sure is full of chemicals, but I’ve always thought the organics are pretty good.
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:26 am
I think the shear cost of a cup of coffee is a strike against Starbucks. By creating artificial demand for an item that on a cost-per-item basis gives them a built in profit margin that leads to unwarranted spending…
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I find #8 strange because the last time we were at a Starbucks in a remote town (only on road trips when the other choice is nasty gas stations bathrooms and stale coffee) they refilled my travel mug – no problem.
There are so many other reasons to stay away from them though!
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Great reasons to stay away from Starbucks, and my main one is #3!
On the other hand, aren’t we promoting Starbucks by talking about them?
September 24th, 2009 at 10:00 am
@Robb – I wasn’t planning on drinking any coffee today, but I just started brewing a pot, because of your comments. I couldn’t disagree any more. There are many health benefits to drinking coffee, you should try reading up on thm.
About the article above.. I stopped drinking starbucks because of how pricey they are. Although, I do go in there every once in awhile to get their leftover coffee grinds to add to my compost. They do give those out if you ask. At least my local starbucks does…
And there’s no way I’ll ever drink a “fancy cup of coffee” from a McDonald ever. No matter what the taste tests say.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:16 am
@Jeff @Caitlin @Maggie – didn’t mean to offend you or anyone else with my anti-coffee rhetoric, obviously we’ve all got some pretty entrenched views on the subject. Agree to disagree, I guess. I’m well aware of the pros and cons, having done my own medical research on the topic and consulted with various healthcare experts – I just thought I’d offer the alternative because no one seems to be talking about it. This issue isn’t black and white, clearly, but as with any topic, there’s always a danger in just assuming the conventional wisdom is true. Didn’t mean to sound like a dick. This will be my last post on this particular thread. Cheers.
September 24th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
@Robb You don’t need to apologise – I think you make some valid points and I believe it’s good to have a healthy discussion of the pros and cons. I actually don’t think you sounded like a dick and you didn’t offend me. I just don’t happen to agree with you. I too have formed my views after extensive research and analysis and I am happy to agree to disagree. I hope you’ll stick around.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
@Robb 40 gallons for one cup of coffee? I’m sorry, but that’s total B.S.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Everytime I’ve gone to Starbucks with my own cup they have filled it with out question. Have always very nice and I have no problems with them. May be you are just looking for a fight. If so then go after something you can really get your teeth into like the goverment.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Years ago I realized how much more tasty and economical it is to make coffee at home. In the winter time I buy a giant travel thermos to carry mine around, as this is the best way to save.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:05 pm
My husband was born in Seattle so I better watch what I say. :p I never step into a Starbucks unless my husband wants something. I think their coffee tastes like burnt toast. Disgusting! That goes for most of their other drinks as well. From my experience, every Starbucks I’ve ever been to seems to staff people that can’t make a decent cup of coffee.
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