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Stealth Starbucks: Coffee Chain's New Stores Disguise Brand Name
Think of it as the Red Scare in reverse: Worrying whether the hipster at the cafe is secretly a communist is about to be replaced with worrying whether the hipster cafe is secretly a Starbucks. Yesterday, the chain revealed that it's dropping its name from a location in Seattle's trendy Capitol Hill neighborhood and replacing it with "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea." That's right, the people's coffee provider is going underground.
At least two other local stores will follow suit, Kiera notes on the Riff, as the chain tests out marketing coffee with neighborhood-specific names rather than a slutty mermaid, who is getting blown towards the rocky shore of the recession by competition from the Golden Arches.
That Starbucks is making the name switch in Seattle's Capitol Hill rather than a truck stop in Alabama is telling. It suggests that the chain may be most concerned with countering the hipster and anti-corporate backlash, which has kept the store out of trendy neighborhoods in some cities. San Francisco, for example, has blocked Starbucks and even American Apparel stores over concerns about neighborhood character.
The new stores will also sell alcohol, and Starbucks may want to draw a firm line between "wet" and "dry" outlets. Yet sometimes that line is already blurred. In 2004, I interviewed John Winter Smith, a man on Sisyphean mission to visit every Starbucks in the world, who told me that a store in Plano, Texas served him cocktails from a secret mini bar. "They had a couple of bottles in a back room and were mixing up stuff," he said. Now that's what I call neighborhood character.
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Starbucks' Slutty Mermaid Making Waves
Lately, I've seen some changes at the two Starbucks that live less than a block away from the Mother Jones...
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Chicken John Fights Himself
Q&A: Does evil chain store American Apparel belong in the hipster heartland?
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A Starbucks by Any Other Name
The coffee house giant goes for that mom-and-pop feel.
Hershey's Should Take Notice
This is not a new trend. Gallo wines did the same thing when it realized that people wouldn't pay more than a few bucks for wine under their name (although they apparently will, if it's Gallo Sonoma). There are now several wine brands that are marketed by the firm which don't even mention Gallo. Of course, one rung or two down the ladder, Frantzen takes the idea to even more spectacular levels, with their best known "wine" being "Two Buck Chuck" and having myriad other labels from which to market their swill as the markets move them.
Hershey's could learn from these operators. They should have produced a high end chocolate, and marketed it under an unrelated brand name in order to compete with the Scharffenbergers and Dagoba's of the world. Instead, they bought up the independent companies, and in the case of Scharffenberger, shut them down--effectively invading the American kitchen and announcing that Hershey's is America's chocolate company and free choice has been eliminated. With so little backlash from a marketplace given to whining, over action, it's no surprise that Hershey's has no intention to compete in the market place instead of trying to eliminate its competition entirely.
Where the Starbucks idea gets worrisome is that you walk into one of these stores thinking it's an independent and you're instead sending your money right to the Corporation anyway. I used to boycott Starbucks, but quite honestly, a lot of small coffee houses have the business sense of children, keep odd hours, and in some cases right here in San Francisco, they can't even make a proper espresso! In 2000, in New York City, I was hitting four or five independent coffee houses each morning in an ultimately futile search for good coffee in the Big Apple, after the morning search I always ended up at Starbucks; it turned out that in the city where you can get anything if you have the money, you couldn't get good coffee without going to Starbucks. Nowadays I have no problem patronizing the "S"folks if none of the locals are making a proper effort in that locale.
Ultimately though, this may turn out to be very positive news. Right now, too many Americans simply don't care where their food or clothes come from, how they're made, what's in them, and how the people and animals involved were treated, as long as they're priced right, and have some status or fun appeal. If we come to an era where you can't step out of your door without doing business with Corporations disguised as independent companies, the websites to track who owns what will develop, in order to provide an easy to reference data base from which people can tell who is who, and whether or not they're independent or corporate. Getting people to wake up and ask who's behind the goods they buy is one of the most critical achievements we can make if we hope to avoid slipping into bondage under America Inc.
So, you're a Starbucks, huh?
So, could you be kept from a job because you're a queer little Starbucks customer?
Or kept out of school?
Hold it a minute...
Just a quick comment. I am an employee of Starbucks and not always enamored of everything the Company does. However, I was a Starbucks customer long before I was an employee. There is absolutely nothing that the Golden Arches can produce that tastes anything like what Starbucks produces. I know. I've had both recently. There's no comparison. Drinking lattes from the "Golden Arches" is like drinking dumpster juice. Same for the coffee, Green Mountain or not. Let's get real.
This isn't new
For a time, late '90s, early 2000s perhaps, starbucks had a cafe called Circadia in San Francisco on Mariposa. It served alcohol and food as well as all its Starbucks products and nobody died. No mom and pop coffee shop went out of business because of it. Those of us who lived and worked in the area had one more option for coffee or food. When it was opening there were all the same reports about Starbuck's "stealth" and "nefarious" plans and yet nothing dire happened. It's coffee people. It's not nuclear weaponry.
What's the point, here?
I agree with Gryphonisle. Perhaps the only thing notable about this article is that Starbuck's move to "go underground" holds a glimmer of hope that the American consumer might actually care about the ethics of a company, just not who has the best price. I have to say, however, that I find it interesting MOJO picked Starbuck's to pick on. I myself am in the process of developing an informed opinion on Starbuck's. I don't think it is so easy to categorize this company as just another greedy giant bent on world domination at the expense of anything and everything (environmental protection, labor practices, etc.) Starbuck's has made deliberate (and not insubstantial) commitments to social work, providing even part-time employees health insurance, etc. Starbuck's is certainly far from perfect and the homogenization of America it represents offends my appreciation for unique downtowns with businesses created and operated by the proprietor.
That said, I feel like Starbuck's has found itself an easy target. After all, to encounter one all you need to do is step outside your front door. They're ubiquitous. So, it is easy to understand why Americans confronted with "another Starbuck's" may begin to be repulsed. Homogenization alone should not justify such animosity where Starbuck's makes substantial efforts to treat employees fairly, contribute to their communities, and promote environmentally friendly practices. Many companies wouldn't even bother. If Starbuck's wants to help us out by fighting its own homogenizing effects, perhaps we should think about thanking the company instead of cynically viewing this as some kind of stealth move to deceive consumers.
By the way, in case you think I'm a poser, I have no affiliation with Starbuck's and have, as I said, struggled with my own personal view of the company. Starbuck's has its downsides, but I wonder how many part-time employees of local coffee stores are provided health insurance by their employer. Let's all just take a step back and use some sophistication when developing a view of a corporation. Just because a corporation is large does not mean it is morally corrupt and a threat to all we hold dear. The world is just not that simple.
I appreciated finding not
I appreciated finding not just one, but several intelligent & rounded opinions on this article (in Mother Jones of all the places!). When grading across corporations, admittedly a low hurdle, Starbuck's is vastly ahead of its peers in terms of sustainability, long-term supply strategy, ethics, & customer awareness.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that the overall effect of Starbuck's has been positive, period. Its pros are numerous & substantial: popularizing REAL espresso coffee above the lowly auto-drip across the US; advocating for & informing customers about free-trade practices in the supply chain; adapting to customer preferences relatively quickly over time; taking up causes like water availability in eastern Africa & integrating it into their business model; & providing decent jobs to thousands & thousands of part-timers, with health insurance no less. The cons - inflating the price of coffee, loading their menu with an array of sugary & milky drinks, homogenizing the American cafe, popularizing really bad music - are real & not forgotten. But without the influence of Starbuck's in the past couple of decades, many of those cozy, favorite local cafes of ours simply wouldn't be in business.
Fro free!!!
Every wants food for free, who doesn’t? Well, I guess everybody enjoyed the meal from Starbucks given for free. Ever wondered how to get a Starbucks pastry free? To get a Starbucks pastry free, download the coupon on the Starbucks website, print it, and take it in to your local neighborhood Starbucks store for a free pastry of your choice. It will only be for Tuesday, the 21st of July only – and they will only accept the coupon for said free breakfast pastry at stand alone locations – those inside Safeway or Barnes and Nobles, or airports, etc, will not apply. (You'll still need to pay for their coffee.) Starbucks is going on record as advocating a meal first thing in the day as healthy, which is why they are giving away a Starbucks pastry.
where i live in south philly
where i live in south philly we only really have two choices, Black & Brew and B2. Black & Brew actually has really good coffee but they have horrible hours, B2 has horrible coffee for way to much money but somehow it got to be the "place to be" as far as coffee houses. Its sad how some people will sacrifice taste just to try and be cool. I was actually just in there a minute ago, wanted a ice coffee but Blank & Brew was closed, has me and my girl walked buy B2 she said "you wanna go in here" so we walked in, i thought she wanted something, she thought i wanted something but i didn't. I can't justify them charging that much for a 20oz when everywhere else is at least 50 cents cheeper, and when they are not concerned with the quality they serve. I could use an emergency starbucks, i mean f it, we have ritas and as far as mega corps go they gotta be the worst. and just to put this out there to, i will always go to the mom & pop shop before i go to the corporate for everything from food to music (especially music)
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