Why is it that the mermaid — to quote Major, a Starbucks Coffee Master — is so “very good at getting retail space”?
Well, the mermaid just has a lotta money & power that the lil guy or gal doesn’t have.
According to Ros Davidson in New Consumer mag, the mermaid “moves into neighborhoods where there are small, independent cafés and ousts them by, for example, paying rents that are higher than the market rate.” And Starbucks works fast: “The company can open an outlet in 16 weeks and recoup its investment in three years.”
Yeah well — Would lil mom & pop shops offer anything Starbucks doesn’t anyway?
Yes, I think they would. I mean, Cafe Evoke’s in Bozeman, Montana’s gonna be a fair trade coffee shop when it opens — which’ll be a lot later now, due to Starbucks.
According to The Kansas City Star (1/18/00 issue, no link — got it via LexisNexis ), Starbucks “says it has no strategy for locating near established competitors” and that it locates near indie shops “only by accident.”
Well… but these accidents occur so frequently that Ted Lingle of the Specialty Coffee Association of America attests, “Their reputation [for locating near local coffee shops] is well-earned.” KC Star reports that “In cities as diverse as Milwaukee, New Orleans and Portland, Ore., a beloved gourmet coffee house disappeared soon after a Starbucks moved in close by.”
One of every three coffee shops in the country is now a Starbucks. It opened a record 1,672 stores in 2005, has more than 10,000 stores worldwide, and saw a 21% rise in earnings last quarter.
And now, it’s gearing up to take over China. ABC reported that Starbucks executives reiterated their expansion plans for China, seen as a major opportunity for growth.”
So what’ll happen to the mom & pop shops there? Well, I have some speculations. According to ABC, Starbucks CFO Michael Casey said the company’s willing to lose money in the China market “while it pushes ahead with opening new stores.”
My condolences in advance to the mom & pop shops in China.
Update, 2/6/06: Melissa from Boston University weighs in on “just how brutal Starbucks can be to local businesses.”
Update, 2/15/06: Starbucks announces a $5 Million commitment to educational program in China. A little tough, at this point to see whether the mermaid’s just building goodwill, or building goodwill to soften the blow its business practices will have on Chinese-owned businesses.
as greenlagirl knows, I can relate to the *bucks retail space issue. [before embarking on our green home rennovation, I was looking for retail space to open a fair trade/slow food cafe and store. Tom from Monkey and Son offered help and advice, with his strongest caveat being, don't open near Starbucks.]
its really important to put pressure on these huge companies whose objective seems to be to put their stores on every block. but what can we do? the commercial real estate owners like renting to starbucks because they know that their rent will get paid, plus they get more money from them. its difficult, to say the least, to convince a landlord to lease to an independent small business owner. they don’t want to rent to a business that might fail, and blight the neighborhood with an empty storefront. they want it quick and painless, and starbucks come in and set up their stores with lightening speed. plus they bring foot traffic to the area. its win/win for the landlord and starbucks. and lose/lose for the fair trade consumer and retailer.
Comment by kimmy — January 15, 2006 @ 1:14 pm
A Starbucks opened in my hometown across the street from the local favorite coffee hotspot Batdorf and Bronson. Then Batdorf moved across the street, even closer to Starbucks, into a bigger shop. The local guys are doing awesome! Now, starbucks does have a gingerbread latte that my LA sister prefers. But that didn’t stop me from getting 7 drinks at batdorf for the rest of the family and then taking them into starbucks on prominent display while waiting for the gingerbread. Stick it to the man.
Comment by Josh — January 16, 2006 @ 11:13 am
starbucks opened up in my neighborhood in Oakland across the street from Gaylord’s, which is an indie cafe that usually has cool local art on the wall and cute art school kids working the counter. when sbux opened, there were protests, yup, like placards and shouting and marching…sbux is still there and i’ll use their bathroom when the line for Gaylord’s is long. but i fear Gaylord’s could close, as the owner has been lacksidasical and doesn’t keep the place in good shape…if they close, their failure could be used to support sbux position.
the main problem, as i see it, is that globalization is here to stay, so it’s a matter of finding ways to make it work for the people normally marginalized by it–one of these ways is FAIR TRADE. and guess who’s balking at being more commmited to Fair Trade? hmmm…
Comment by indie in oaktown — January 17, 2006 @ 11:58 am
Maybe we should ask what Batdorf and Bronson does to do so well, regardless of Starbucks…
Comment by Siel — January 17, 2006 @ 10:52 pm
right-o. so this all begs the question: “how the hell can SBUX do fair trade?”.
to me, you can dress a turd up all pretty (like with a FTC logo) and spray it with perfume. in the end, it is still a turd.
keep it coming.
-matt
Comment by mateotemprano — January 18, 2006 @ 12:33 pm
Actually, Starbucks already does Fair Trade in the Cafe Estima blend. The reason that they do this is to give the Fair Trade movement more exposure.
On the other hand, in spite of what you seem to believe, the goals of Fair Trade and of Starbucks are one and the same: Starbucks is already paying top dollar for its coffees, whether they are Fair Trade certified or not. The fact is, slightly more than half of the world’s coffee is produced on small mom&pop coffee farms, which are the only farms that are even relevant to Fair Trade. The other coffee is produced by much larger farms that would not benefit from the movement at all, but that still sell their coffees to Starbucks. Also, besides paying hefty amounts for coffee, Starbucks offers affordable credit to farmers when they need it most.
Stop damning what you know nothing about.
Comment by Jason — January 19, 2006 @ 7:16 pm
Let me first clarify that the Jason above is an anonymous Jason, NOT the Jason from Cafe Evoke in Montana, NOR the Jason in LA that comments about fair trade options in downtown LA once in a while.
Jason — We all know about Cafe Estima, which Starbucks says is avaliable to anyone via request, but often is not. Thus, the Starbucks Challenge, which has been going on for months.
Secondly, Starbucks STILL buys a lot of its coffee — 41% to be exact — through middlemen with no transparency clauses. This means that, even if Starbucks pays what you call “top dollar” (which, btw, still averages out to LESS than the fair trade MINIMUM), there’s no guarantee that this money actually goes to the farmers. Starbucks has ALREADY ADMITTED to this.
Darling, If you’re interested in fair trade, or in Starbucks in general, I suggest reading through some of the Starbucks Challenge posts. You’ll discover that I’ve duly done my homework, not just listened to the corporate spin like “partners” (*cough, you, cough*) have done.
Comment by Siel — January 19, 2006 @ 7:27 pm
I know I’m reading this a year and a half too late but I still felt the need to comment.
While I agree with almost everything mentioned about globalization and fair trade, where exactly do you think the average small coffee shop (scs)gets their coffee from? Have you ever investigated yours? And should we really support a scs simply because it’s a scs? Not IMHO. A scs that doesn’t use fair trade or organic coffee shouldn’t be patronized simply because it’s not Starbucks.(*$) After all, the prices aren’t any cheaper at your average scs. Although *$ purchases less than 5% of their coffee as fair trade, they are still the largest purchaser of fair trade coffee in North America. That’s significant and not to be overlooked. Yes, they should certainly be purchasing even more fair trade and doing even more to support coffee farmers. I’ll never disagree with that statement. But think about it: Due to the global popularity of *$, there are now many more coffee farmers than there were 20 years ago. Without *$, many of these farms would simply go out of business. Not only due to direct sales, but due to the effect that *$ has had on global coffee consumption in general. And while they have put a lot of small shops out of business, they’ve also allowed a lot of small shops to thrive by creating the current coffee consumption trend. According to their store locater, there are 15 *$ within 2 miles of me. That includes the ones that are located inside of Safeway and the Convention Center. There are at least 13 scs (locally owned) within the same 2 miles radius. I’m sure that there are even more located in various state buildings that I don’t even know about.
Comment by jmstargirl — June 7, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
“Have you ever investigated yours?”
jmstargirl — If you just shift your eyes over to the left column, you’ll see a link to a list of fair trade coffee shops.
Comment by Siel — June 8, 2007 @ 7:35 pm
Wow. I must have been in a bad mood the day I wrote my previous comment! I think I was just frustrated over the whole “the little guy is better” mentality that isn’t necessarily true. Misguided I suppose because that wasn’t the point of your article. At any rate, I did a more thorough investigation of your website and I feel sheepish for my previous comment. You are obviously passionate about making ethically correct choices and I respect you for that. You’ve inspired me to stop making excuses for my Starbucks habit! Now if I could only find a coffee shop around here that not only serves fair trade, but also knows how to make a good soy latte.
Comment by jmstargirl — July 27, 2007 @ 4:59 pm
Thanks for stopping by again, and for yr words of encouragement :) And if you let me know what city you live in, I can try to point you to some local coffee shops — assuming Starbucks hasn’t already driven out the ones in yr area –
Comment by Siel — July 27, 2007 @ 11:42 pm