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dana - 2003-12-05 11:14:25
Besides, Starbucks and Barnes & Noble combined have managed to do what NYC can't do for itself: provide reliable public bathrooms throughout the city. Therefore, they are not evil.
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Ross - 2003-12-05 11:33:31
South Park (one of my main sources for philosophical discourse) had a good episode about this, suprisingly coming down on the side of Starbucks, who might be evil if they didn't make wicked good coffee.
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Paula - 2003-12-05 12:32:28
...and lets not forget the maple scone, and the fact that S-bucks is supposedly a humane employer and a contributor to good causes. I'm with Dana on the bathroom thing, too.
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Liza - 2003-12-05 17:16:57
Woah wait a minute, Starbucks has raised the price point on a cup of Joe from 50 cents to $4, and they all look alike. That's part of the soul-deadening effect of the big chain stores. Instead of there being *different* coffee shops with different furniture, different cups, different music on the stereo, different independent owners with creative punny names, every couple of blocks with each store reflecting it's neighborhood, we've got one Starbucks fits all with their bleached grande cups and extra wasteful cup sleeves. The only almond sliver sized slice of non-evil about them that I can see is their health care policy, and all that does is make them better than The Gap. I'll take my coffee from the deli on the corner, muchas gracias.
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Paula - 2003-12-05 17:45:25
Is it unimaginative to have all the same decor and music on the stereo? Certainly. Are the prices bad? Well, a small cup of coffee at my local deli is 1.00, and at Starbucks, a small coffee is something like $1.58. I chalk that up to living in NYC.

But are they "evil"? I don't see it. I can't even heartily agree to "soul-deadening." The tenor of a store depends on the individual personalities of the clerks and baristas. The soul of a customer is entirely his or her own responsibility.

As far as working conditions go, I have worked retail in my day, and I wasn't treated any better by the mom-and-pops than I was by the big chains. If anything, the mom-and-pops can get away with treating you worse because they don't have a "corporate culture" to answer to.

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Sonny Pro Bono - 2003-12-06 19:43:54
It's certainly true that one shouldn't romanticize small-business owners: quite often they can be even more ruthless (and circumstances provide less recourse) than ConHugeCo. Still'n'all, in the long run, stores like Starbucks do reduce the diversity of the commercial gene pool. And it's undoubtedly true that in small towns they can kill local businesses dead - particularly when they're not niche-filling like Starbucks but selling everything, like Wal-Mart. That said, it is good to not demonize and polarize, if only because doing so shuts down debate & understanding.
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