Starbucks: The Empire Strikes Back

i like the mermaid logo

F Starbucks with this faux environmentally sensitive bullshit ad campaign where you get a cheap free re usable plastic cup. First of all they’ve already produced these cups. So hey brain dead latte consumer: you’re not helping the environment. You’re just mitigating the damage that’s already done. Assuming you use the cup for the rest of your life. In 99% of cases though people will stop using them within a year and will store it next to the other reusable cups in their cabinet or will toss it out. F Starbucks.

I finally took the plunge this year and started bring a metal thermos to work every day to pick up my morning coffee (not Starbucks btw). Partly out of concern for the environment and partly out of thinking about hot coffee sitting in that plastic lining. Also it stays hotter so I can drink it slower if I want to. I still pour it into a ceramic mug once I get to the office though, since I don't like drinking directly out of a thermos.

They really are a shitty company

Kyle Trainer, a barista at the location, said he believed Starbucks eliminated seating due to homeless individuals and people with mental illnesses around the neighborhood. He added that Starbucks does not adequately train team members to manage stressful situations and that the chain would rather “remove the seating, close the bathroom and not deal with it.

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/sf-castro-starbucks-seating-removed-17854447.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight

Just learned a few weeks ago that a Starbucks in my city near the local high school just completely shuts down from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm every weekday rather than dealing with the horror of *gasp* teenagers.

Whatever, but I often have to drop my son off at the high school for sports related activities during that time frame that aren't really long enough for me to turn around and drive all the way back home, so it'd be nice to sit somewhere other than in my car in a parking lot for 45 minutes.

And this whole bullshit about calling the employees 'our partners' - are you giving them profit sharing? Stock options? Dividends? They're not your 'partners,' they're workers

So much of the closing or removal of spaces comes just down to labor; that the company completely refuses to adequately staff and train those locations for that time, isn’t it?

I mean, yes, both are connected to larger problems that city officials tend to refuse to deal with other than sending in cops, true.