okay, is starbucks REALLY bad, or do people just think it's evil?

[FrostGiant]

I worked at Piggly Wiggly in high school. I got paid $4.35 and hour. It sucked. But then I got fired.

 

[xfer]

i hope you used a tongue scraper, too.

i got paid $4.28 at my first job at CVS. ugh.

 

[Baliset]

i was paid $4.75 an hour at the New Britain Public Library.

 

[minxnim]

i made $4.90 at kmart. but at the time, minimum wage was even lower than that. i also would get bonuses for coming in early and being nice to other employees. also, once i got caught stealing food and the head of the store started giving me groceries because he realized i was actually just hungry. i was poor dudez. it sucked. and kmart wasn't that bad.

 

[xfer]

what food did you steal? a gift tin of butter cookies?

 

[FrostGiant]

I use to steal beer. and candy.

 

[xfer]

well, preppy grew up in MA, where you can only buy beer at moat-surrounded fortresses, on Saturday mornings, if you know the password and give the guard a hummer.

 

[minxnim]

i stole pasta.

 

[goatschool]

i do know that starbucks tends to saturate local markets with 2-3 stores clustered in the same area.

this tends to destroy "cafe culture", but then again, was it ever a "culture" to begin with if people are that quick to choose starbucks over what previously existed?

also, wasn't there some corporate policy barring any local periodical that might be left inside the store? i know this was an issue up here, anyhow. i'd say that's a bit anti-community.

$4 for a medium cafe mocha. gah.

 

[avi]

all of the starbucks around here are required to do community outreach. The animal rescue group I volunteer for has started doing adoptions at a location in SF every other weekend. Plus they are taking donation boxes all over the place. That's pretty cool if you ask me.

And that shade grown/fair trade coffee issue is a big deal, too. People should be paying attention to that shit cuz it affects global warming and poverty levels in S. America and is an easy way to help out.

 

[minxnim]

hmm the starbucks here gives you free new york times and brooklyn papers to like, read and stuff? plus there are always zines lying around the one near me. anyway, i go there like, once or twice a year to get a present for my receptionist. she likes their mugs. i just wonder if people's hatred of them is warranted, or if they are only as 'evil' as anything else is evil?

 

[xfer]

what's shade grown? when i get coffee, i get the "fair trade certified one", but mostly because i like its flavour the best.

 

[azal]

I think this 1971 shot of a Starbucks proves once and for all the evilness of it all.

 

[avi]

the short answer: shade grown means the coffee is grown in an environmentally-friendly way that preserves the local fauna and wildlife. coffee grows naturally in the shade, but sometimes producers will cut down lots of trees to grow more on less land.

for better answers than I can provide do a google search on the terms or maybe check starbucks' site to see if they have an explanation.