Starbucks closing 600 stores

[KitKat]

If my calculations are correct , and their closing 5% of their stores in the U.S., they would have 12,000 total locations in the U.S. 
That's a lot of coffee!!   Anyone else want to do the math?   

http://seattletimes.nwsou...27895_webstarbucks01.html

[thartley]

.05x = 600, where x = total number of U.S. Starbucks locations

.05x/.05 = 600/.05

x = 600/.05

x = 12,000


You are correct.   

[PK]

They might be closing the one in Nong Khai soon. Because the only person I know who buys coffee there is Sean and he's going back to the US in two weeks.

[thartley]

That's not true....I saw a monk in there last week.

[Ginafish]

I wasn't brave enough to post this, b/c I thought this might be "Bad News" for t Wonder if this will be then end of the corner of the end of the world in jville?

[thartley]

It might be, because there are three others (besides those two at the end of the universe) within about two miles.

[KitKat]

I wasn't brave enough to post this, b/c I thought this might be "Bad News" for t Wonder if this will be then end of the corner of the end of the world in jville?

My thought was that T., after being in Nongkhai for 6 months, would be off the Starbucks coffee kick and she wouldn't take it as "Bad News" .      She's already made so many large adjustments to her new life, I just know she'll be able to handle this one.   

Tell us T., how did you take this news?

[Sean]

They might be closing the one in Nong Khai soon. Because the only person I know who buys coffee there is Sean and he's going back to the US in two weeks.

In all honesty I'm worried for them, I spend an absurd amount of money there on a daily basis haha*.  They are definitely going to be overstocked on ham&cheese sandwiches.  I should probably warn them tomorrow.

I'm gonna miss them a lot, outside of Isara, they definitely know me/see me the most.  Ive learned a lot from talking and hanging out with them each day.  They are some of the better if not best English speakers around NK.

*they are the ONLY coffeeshop in Nong Khai to get normal coffee, as in drip coffee.  Everywhere else is expresso and water.

[KitKat]

*they are the ONLY coffeeshop in Nong Khai to get normal coffee, as in drip coffee.  Everywhere else is expresso and water.

Sean, Starbucks opened after I left NK.  The place I got my morning coffee was at the 7/11, powdered coffee and hot water.
 Definitely not like home, but I didn't mind  b/c I was in Thailand.    I never expected it to be like home . 

Yes, maybe it's a good idea for you to let them know you're leaving NK soon.    We're all going to miss you. 

[Nick]

Even if they close one in every US city, there is another three right across the street.

[PK]

Looks like there's a few of us who aren't feeling bad for Starbucks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/n.../us_nm/usa_coffeeshops_dc

Next up, Wal-mart.

[thartley]

There could also be the crunch this is going to put on the families of the people who are working in those 600 stores.  You might think its all college kids and in-betweens, but there are ALOT of people in the stores in Jacksonville who are middle-aged to elderly trying hard to supplement income that is already too low to live on.  A job is a job.

I remember when our power was out for an extended number of days after a bad storm, and being "broker than broke", Laurie and I went into a Starbucks with the change we had and they ended up giving us what we wanted for free.  I'm sure I'm not the only person that manager was kind to.  I hate to think of her being out of a job.

[Sean]

These "local" coffee houses should be sending Starbucks Christmas cards.  The only reason they can now charge so much for an espresso is because Starbucks got the ball rolling....

Where were these "neighborhood cafes" before Starbucks....certainly there are MORE of them now thanks to Starbucks.

I won't even get into how much better the pay and benefits are for a Starbucks employee than just about any company you can think of for an hourly service worker.

That's my rant.



Edit:  I removed a potentially offensive rant about faux non-conformists and their pathetic complaints about anything "corporate".

[PK]

There could also be the crunch this is going to put on the families of the people who are working in those 600 stores.  You might think its all college kids and in-betweens, but there are ALOT of people in the stores in Jacksonville who are middle-aged to elderly trying hard to supplement income that is already too low to live on.  A job is a job.

People had jobs before Starbucks and Wal-mart ever existed. They'll have jobs after too.  People always find a way to survive. They'll create new opportunities where none were before.

I won't even get into how much better the pay and benefits are for a Starbucks employee than just about any company you can think of for an hourly service worker.

Are you talking about in Nong Khai? ha!   Our first volunteer worked at Starbucks and would probably disagree with you on those alleged benefits and pay.

[thartley]

I have frequented tons of different coffee shops at home, Shelby's at the beach and their downtown location inside the new library, Claire's just a block from the ocean, Where Ya Bean?, Higher Ground (a Christian coffeehouse), and Panera (for another expanding chain style place).  But I also like Starbucks.  Are they a little whacked with the sheer number of stores?  Sure.  Am I happy to hear they are closing 600 stores?  In a better economy, I would probably say yes.  But as things are right now, no.  It will not be easy for many of those people to find other jobs.  Maybe Starbucks will retain and relocate some to other stores, but as happy as some people may be that the stores are closing, it really is the little guy who suffers, the worker trying to put food on the table.

The customers will find another cuppa right down the block.  But that paycheck, however small, is not going to be so easy to replace for some of these folks.  I would be saying that about any company making this kind of cutback at this time....even Walmart.

[Sean]

Name me another company that offers medical and dental insurance to part-time employees doing service work with no degree required?  As well as a way above average paycheck for essentially being a cashier, or coffee maker.

There is a reason why you will rarely see a help wanted sign at any Starbucks location that is not new. 

[PK]

Just because a business offers good pay or good benefits to their employees doesn't mean their business practices are good too. Typically the better a companies benefits are for employees the sleezier their business practices are. That's the only way they can keep employees from leaving.

Also, what exactly is their deductible for that health and dental insurance? They might not even be able to afford it working part-time at minimum wage. Especially if they have to drive to the doctor at $5/gallon. YIKES!!!
 
 

[thartley]

Still....

Starbucks was ranked #16 in 2007 on Fortune's list of best companies to work for, and moved up to #7 in 2008.  This article lists the bene's as a contributing factor to that ranking...

http://austin.about.com/o...estcompaniestoworkfor.htm

I'm just saying....

(this list will really tick you off, though.     http://money.cnn.com/maga...2008/full_list/index.html )

and lastly, http://money.cnn.com/maga...ies/2008/snapshots/7.html

[Sean]

To answer your question, $14 dollars a month in 2006, $32 dollars a month now.   http://findarticles.com/p...s_n9_v14/ai_18687795/pg_2

To continue my current health insurance plan once I left college was going to cost over $1000 dollars per month.

This is pretty much me and PK in a nutshell.  I tend to be pragmatic in my arguments an he is ever the idealist.
His way is more fun and I love him for it.

[PK]

That's a lot of links!   But, as I said...

Just because a business offers good pay or good benefits to their employees doesn't mean their business practices are good too.

So no matter how many Top 20 Employer Lists they are on it doesn't change the fact that their business ethics are wrong and that they have ultimately hurt us more than they have helped us. They have spread across the planet like a virus, even going so far as to open a shop in the Forbidden City.  And giving employees great dental doesn't make up for it. Same as if a factory moves into a town and then destroys all the trees and pollutes all the water. They could still make it on the list of Best Employers but they're also going to make it on Santa's naughty list.

And in the case of Wal-mart (Starbucks MUCH more evil twin), they provide very little benefits to employees and they destroy more jobs then they create. A double whammy and, like every other man-made problem, it all comes back to greed.  http://www.goodjobsfirst..../wmtstudy.pdf   Also, a poll done in 2005 found that a majority of Americans think Wal-mart is bad for America.

Am I anti-big business? Nope. I'm pro-small business. And I wish Starbucks, Wal-mart, McDonalds, and even 7-11, would go back to being great small businesses that provided customers with unique services and products. Which is what made them great in the first place.

Idealistic? Heck yea!   (And this whole time I thought Sean loved me for my eyes. lol)   Unfortunately, I can't accept Starbucks or Wal-marts business plan as 'just the way the world works'.  Doing that doesn't create change or propagate real progress.  Someone much smarter than myself once said, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." ...or woman.

[Sean]

Yes your eyes are great.  As Ming said a few weeks back "they are like a girls eyes".


Starbucks was INVITED to the forbidden city by the CHINESE musuem directors.  The starbucks is owned by a Chinese company, Meida Coffee, and was placed in a small corner of an ALREADY existing souvenir store.

Hardly a virus.  They were begged to set up shop in the so called Forbidden Tourist Town

[thartley]

Hey Sean, what time you going to Starbucks today?  Its all I dreamed about lastnight after this thread.  LOL!   

[Sean]

I may go there all day in protest.

[PK]

Yes, it was owned by a Chinese company. Same as the Starbucks in Thailand are owned by Thai companies. That's how franchising works overseas. But are you sure they were invited? Don't forget, money corrupts. It is possible that the museum directors were approached and paid for that prime real estate. You can't deny it's possible, when there's a profit to be made.

And, ultimately, Starbucks was asked to leave. Goodbye virus.

[thartley]

I may go there all day in protest.

LOL!  I'm out of mustard, so while I'm there at the mall, I may as well stop in for the singularly (if made en mass by a globe of somewhat trained barristas) nice, convenient, consistent cup real drip coffee in Nong Khai.  They may be gone tomorrow.

I'm just glad I dont smoke.  Most people seem to have to roll their own around here.  I'd make my own coffee, but they don't have drip coffeemakers here that I can find.