I'm no great defender of Starbucks. (A recent visit to a Peet's in Portland, Oregon reminded me of how much better even a chain coffee place can be.) But I continue to be baffled at the high priority given by some activists to excoriating this particular outfit for its sins. Yes, they're real sins, but surely there are several dozen more important political priorities for this kind of high-profile action?

It's hard to avoid the suspicion that what's actually happening here is a kind of fake class warfare, about as meaningful as crusading against disco music. Real power loves to see this kind of thing.

It's a symbolic lightning rod.

I imagine the revolution is at the stage now where a symbolic target is needed to most coherently promote awareness of the issues involved to the uninitiated.

Viva La Peets!

<MODE="sarcasm">In related news, a hip Hong Kong clothing store has introduced a line of clothing with Starbucks logos. One branch projected barrista training films on the shop's wall. </MODE>

tom
-=W=-

If that's what they think, Dav, they're a bunch of deluded, self-marginalizing idiots. It's the *activisits* who have turned Starbucks into a lightning rod, inflating it into a convenient bogeyman.

Why not trash Wal-Mart outlets, which carry vast quantities of cheap imported goods made in asian sweatshops? Or Safeway supermarkets, which import produce from Latin America?

Well, I just hope these "protestors" are found and sued for all they are worth.

To condone their activities while condemning Starbucks is hypocritical to say the least. While Starbucks may be driving out competition legally, what these people did is illegal and inexcusable.

Starbucks corporate likely isn't sweating, so the only people hurt are the poor employees working for their $6/hr or whatever. GOOD JOB PROTESTORS!!!

If only they had brains to match their ambition.

Which reminds me, if you find a lot of small, independant coffee houses closed today, don't fret; I'm simply adopting the rules of the "protestors" and closing them down.

Nothing like fighting fire with fire, and without a corporate behemoth like Starbucks behind them, I bet I can get the little Indy places shut down in a week! Yay for theft under the guise of protest!!!

Peets and Starbucks are opposite ends of the coffee drinking
spectrum. Peets is better if you prefer unadulterated coffee,
Starbucks is better if you want a fancy coffee cocktail.

Both are chains, not that that is necessarily bad. Starbucks
has three locations in my town, but Peets has no retail locations
there, just their corporate headquarters.

/m7 ...someone hasn't had their four dollar cup of coffee this morning!

Starbucks should seek "terrorism protection" and have these vandals labeled as terrorists. Then the FBI can get involved and fight these starbucks-haters!

Personally, I don't drink coffee and I especially hate Starbucks' coffee, I think it's way too dry and acidic. It's the coffee drinker community's own fault for allowing Starbucks to get this far.

$.75 42oz soda pop at your local gas station is way cheaper caffeine alternative.

You have the anti-globalization crowd complaining again and again about how companies should have some social conscience. How those corporations should respect their workers and the environment.

And a company comes along, with at least a smidgen of environmental responsibility (yes, we all know even smelling coffee passed through a multi-national is about the same as personally enslaving half the population of El Salvador) - a company that pays their workers at the top of the wage slave scale ($15/hour to start here in NYC) - a company that provides health insurance to part time workers starting at 20 hours a week (when other companies are tossing their full time workers out to dry) - and worst of all, their biggest sin, they provide a nice place to sit down, with clean bathrooms..

Meanwhile, nobody can point to study that finds that Starbucks closes down independent coffee shops, in fact, anecdotal evidence is that Starbucks merely increases the total market for premium coffee, helping everyone.

Sure their coffee is sh*t.. Nobody is forcing you to drink at gunpoint.. Meanwhile, go throw a freaking garbage can through someone's window who deserves it...


These people aren't activists, they don't deserve that title, they are criminals.