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August 06, 2003
Starbucks got tagged
Just read THIS article in the LA times (free registration required). 17 of San Francisco's local Starbucks were vandalized early Tuesday morning. The beauty is in how they were vandalized. "windows clouded with glue, "For Lease" signs pasted on their facades and some of their locks jammed". The pranksters also posted a notice on faux Starbucks letterhead regretfully announcing the closure of "thousands of retail locations worldwide." As if that wasn't funny enough, they posted a message from the Starbucks Corporation which stated that Starbuck's lofty goals "to promote a sustainable social, ecological, and economic model for the production and trade of coffee" had failed. Further stating "The global economy requires a relentless substitution of quantity over quality and shareholder value over human values." It was signed with the name of Starbuck's actual senior vice president of corporate social responsibility. Another quote from the article. "A main complaint is Starbucks' tactic of offering above-market rents to storefront owners, driving up other commercial rents and often forcing locally owned stores out, said Marsha Garland, executive director of the North Beach chamber. "Just genius! It so succinctly states what I've come to realize (previous blog). Trying to start, build and grow a business in the current business environment is almost impossible if you also hold to a high set of ideals in how you treat your employees, customers and shareholders. Starbucks was smart enough to figure out enough people wanted to see that kind of company, they had merely to state they WERE that kind of company to get support. Of course, like Nike (previous blog), they never were. It was all a PR game.
Posted by wonko at August 6, 2003 01:50 PM
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