7.27.2008

fewer starbucks in the world is not a bad thing

Further to our recent discussion of the pleasures and pitfalls of iced coffee, I note that Starbucks is closing 600 US outlets. That represents about 6% of the company's 7,200 US stores.

This is very bad news for 12,000 people who will find themselves unemployed. So I say this with great sympathy for those workers: I told you so! And so did everyone else.

There are 235 Starbucks in New York City alone. There aren't enough people to drink all that coffee, or to spend their hard-earned dollars on over-priced non-essentials in such difficult economic times. We all wondered why they wanted to open an identical store on every block. We wondered how long it would last. Apparently, this long.

It won't be easy for those 12,000 newly unemployed people, and I shouldn't be jubilant about anyone losing work, especially a decent-paying, union job. So the labour activist in me is poking the New Yorker in me with a sharp stick.

But as someone who loves New York City, I can only hope that at least half of those 235 stores are destined to get the ax. Hooray and hurrah. Shutter those babies and grow weeds in their place if you have to.



The Starbucks closing story is actually about three weeks old - two weeks older than the last iced coffee post!

No comments: