Actor Everett labels Starbucks a 'cancer'

FOOLMEWUNZ said:
Walmart's, though, is a different case. They are known for driving the little guys out of business, at least in all the 20-20 type stories I've seen (does anyone know if there's any evidence that refutes this, outside of Walmart press kits, at any rate?).
Click to expand...

Actually, there is no evidence that Wal-Mart has ever driven a single retailer out of business.
 
KelvinG said:
I'm not naive enough to assume my protestations make much of a difference, but if I'm dissatisfied with a place I'll make my feelings known.
Click to expand...

They do make a difference, but only if you let the right people know.

Write (don't email) to the head office, the regional office (if there is one) and the branch concerned, making sure that they know you were a loyal regular customer and are now boycotting them for X reason and are encouraging your friends to do the same. But, treat it like an opportuntity for them to right something the probably didn't know was annoying customers. Let them know that you would return if the situation was different and that you find it unfortunate that you can't enjoy their otherwise excellent services, etc.

Otherwise it's a pointless veto. You're just depriving yourself of something you used to enjoy over a matter of principle, without giving yourself the opportunity to fix it.
 
FOOLMEWUNZ said:
Any well-run new business can harm an old business that will not adjust. It's not all based on 'cheap' as we've proven already. How about the corner green-grocers as we called them when I was young. Mr. and Mrs. O'Neill got run out when the larger familied Batistellas came over in the 20's and offered more and fresher produce and supplies. The Batistellas got run out by the Papalakos family, and then the Papalakos's got driven out of business by the Kims and Parks and Lees. Each ensuing new ethnic group brought a little more elbow grease, innovation, and care to the business, or at least enough that it shook up the current standard. The Koreans in NYC, in fact, fit the Starbuck's argument. They charged more for many of their items. But they carried a better selection, spent what seemed like twenty hours a day misting the produce and fresh flowers, and any time there were more than three people lined up at the cash, one of the guys from the veggie stand ran over to help out. Even in the tough old times in Alphabet City, nary a single mom-and-pop store survived the onslaught OF LEGITIMATE COMPETITION. Now the style of store the Korean families started with in the 70's is 'de rigeur' for the New York Corner Store. The great Jewish delis have survived, as have the great Irish Pubs (McBell's is still there, PLEASE SAY SO!...) and the best Italian and Greek and Arab and and and and....
Click to expand...
Emphasis mine.

Okay, here's a business niche that's been crying to be filled for years.

I grew up in the NYC area and still go there occasionally on business. When I'm up there - downtown Manhattan (Tribeca) - I generally pop into the deli across the street from the office. The cashier is Chinese, the guys making the sandwiches are Puerto Rican, but the service is echt New York: "Next!"

I give the guy my order:
"Gimme a roast beef on rye, lettuce, tomato, mustard, no onion."

"Pickle with that?"

"Yeah, please."

Then I turn around, walk five feet to the drink refrigerator, get a can of grape soda, and go back to the counter, where the guy is already wrapping up the sandwich and scribbling the price on the wrapper with a grease pencil, while shouting, "Next!" I go to the cash register, where the Chinese lady gives me a sunny, genuine smile (at least it appears genuine), asks "How you today?" and has my lunch in a bag and my change in my hand in ten seconds flat.

Service that makes McDonald's look glacial by comparison, though they dispense with "Welcome to the Park Lane Deli! Can I take your order?" foolishness. I'm in and out in five minutes.

There are times I have occasion to go to a delly (yes, I've seen it spelled that way here, I swear to Ed...) in Our Nation's Capital. I stand on line* as the person behind the counter laboriously waits on the people ahead of me. If I were giving my roast beef order here, I'd watch as the sandwich maker carefully pulls a sheet of wax paper out of the box, spreads it out on the counter, then turns around and walks to the rack where the loaves of bread are sitting. Two slices of rye are retrieved; a hiccup in the process as he turns around and asks, "You said rye...?" He carries the two slices of rye back to the counter and lays them out. He squirts some mustard on the bread, puts down the mustard bottle and picks up a knife and spreads it out carefully. He then reaches into the shredded lettuce and carefully retrieves just the right amount, piling it on the bread and pushing in the sides so it doesn't spill out over the edge. He picks up a slice of tomato and puts it on the lettuce. He then picks up another slice of tomato and overlaps it on the first slice. He then goes to the roast beef and unwraps a pre-measured single-sandwich size portion and places it on the tomatoes. He then picks up the second slice of bread and puts it on the beef and presses down on the sandwich (they always do that. Why???) Then he picks up a knife and pressing down on the sandwich again (why was the first time necessary?), slices it in half. He then carefully, painstakingly, wraps up the sandwich, and puts it in a clear plastic snap-lid tray. "Do you want a pickle?" "Yes, please." He picks up a pickle and puts it in the tray, then snaps it shut. He then goes to the cash register, where I pay him while everyone behind me waits. I don't care that they have to wait; I had to endure the same thing, so [rule8 'em]. He then returns to his workstation, takes care of some unknown but apparently vital business with someone else behind the counter whose purpose remains a mystery, and then attends to the next customer.

That's in a "delly." Go into a cafeteria in any federal office building here and it's worse.

If you have any experience in the food-service business and would like to get rich, just move down here with a couple of Puerto Rican guys and a Chinese woman from New York. Riches await you. I'll certainly patronize your business.

* Do New Yorkers stand on line or do they stand in line?

Neither. New Yorkers cut in line.
 
tkingdoll said:
They do make a difference, but only if you let the right people know.

Write (don't email) to the head office, the regional office (if there is one) and the branch concerned, making sure that they know you were a loyal regular customer and are now boycotting them for X reason and are encouraging your friends to do the same. But, treat it like an opportuntity for them to right something the probably didn't know was annoying customers. Let them know that you would return if the situation was different and that you find it unfortunate that you can't enjoy their otherwise excellent services, etc.

Otherwise it's a pointless veto. You're just depriving yourself of something you used to enjoy over a matter of principle, without giving yourself the opportunity to fix it.
Click to expand...

What you say makes total sense and if perhaps I will write them.

I guess I never thought of doing that since there is nothing particularly special about Starbucks coffee. There are plenty of other places with as good or better product. So, I'm more than happy to live without it.

But, I suppose as a matter of principle I should let my thoughts be known to the powers that be.
 
Mephisto said:
A good point that no one is willing to contest. ;)
Click to expand...
What's to contest? It's really very simple: Those who want to open the crack house are more willing to pay the cost of opening it than those opposed to it are willing to pay what it costs to block it.
 
This is why I don't like Wal-Mart and a number of other companies mentioned below (and why I actively avoid them and their products).
But they are sweatshop workers who face working conditions that the majority of Americans haven't contemplated since the decline of the Robber-Barons. They tell of the long hours, the heat, working seven days per week -- a violation of China's weak labor laws -- while being paid for six.
Click to expand...
Wal-Mart distances itself from those processes as a matter of course. UCLA's Kent Wong told me: "The source of most of the exploitation and abuse is through the vast ... network of suppliers. And in the vast majority of those instances Wal-Mart has no direct employer relationship with those workers." That gives Wal-Mart cover -- call it "plausible deniability" -- but it doesn't change the underlying moral equation.
Click to expand...
Working Conditions

Business leaders are not only closing ranks around the promise of opening China's markets to American exports. China has become an important source of labor. According to a May 2000 report by the National Labor Committee, U.S.companies import 36% of China's total exports worldwide. Major U.S. companies, including Nike, New Balance, and Timberland shoes, Kathie Lee, Wal-Mart, and RCA TVs have factories in China. And the labor is cheap. In Timberland's factories, 16 and 17 year old girls work 14 hours a day, seven days a week for 22 cents an hour. Young women, some of them only 14, also make RCA TVs. They work from 7.30 am to 9 p.m. or sometimes midnight, for a basewage of 25 cents an hour. They are fined 10 hours pay if they make a mistake on the production line. Young men andwomen work in Wal-Mart factories for 14 hour shifts, 7 days a week, 30 days a month and take home an average of 3 cents per hour.
Click to expand...
Cheap Labor, Bush, & Wal-Mart
 
tkingdoll said:
Of course. Cheap coffee, burgers and...er...everythings, are easy to resist in principle, but when you can smell them...
Click to expand...
Interestingly enough, Starbucks is more expensive then a lot of the local coffee places around here; and hey, the local places get just as much if not more business. :)

Of course you can never have enough coffee around a military base.
 
What's this Voodoo Donuts? Never heard of them. Who would want a donut shop that performs voodoo weddings anyway?

http://www.voodoodoughnut.com/


Has anyone here ever heard of Dunkin' Donuts?


https://www.dunkindonuts.com/

I tried Starbucks coffee and since I drink my cafe black w/o sugar it always gave me heartburn. I found that the Dunkin blend much smoother, lighter and it doesn't cause chest pain when drunk black and sugarless. I even pay nine bucks for a bag to take home.

I also tried Don Imus' coffee which is pretty smooth also and a cut above Starbucks plus Imus has pulled a Paul Newman and donates the profits to children's charities. I think I heard he rebags the Swedish premium blend called Gevalia. He's taken some flack and kudos for this here:

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2005/03/citizen_imus_un.html
 
Last edited:
Geckko said:
I assume by you mean to imply that Betamax was a "superior prouct" to VHS. Do you have any evidence to support that claim?
Click to expand...

betamax didn't suck...but...sony didn't do their homework.

Worried that the Betamax would take over the market, the JVC engineers carefully studied the competitor's VCR. They noted right away how well their matrix had served them. The Betamax tape was only one hour long! And the Betamax weighed some 30% more and it was more difficult to manufacture - the cost of manufacturing scales directly with weight. Their VCR might not have the picture quality of a Betamax, but it did fit the bigger picture: They knew it could meet the needs of manufacturers and consumers.
Click to expand...

Never underestimate the importance of 'meeting the needs' when dealing with market forces.

Starbucks doesn't meet my personal needs (I think their coffee sucks) but it meets the needs of many, many others. A combination of many factors, not just taste.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom