PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

First meeting of The Starbux Sux Project.
by wheatpaster Tuesday July 29, 2003 at 08:34 PM
starbuxsux@heartofdarkness.org (email address NOT validated)

for Pittsburgh Indymedia: A new project to bring the shady business practices of Stabucks Corp. to the public is meeting August 2nd at 6pm in the apartment above the East End Community Thrift Shop, 5123 on Penn Ave. next to the TMC.

Do you hate Starbucks? Are you unhappy they moved into your neighborhood and the hip little coffee shack down the road closed down? Does it irk you when the greed of a few wealthy corporations ensures every neighborhhood looks exactly the same? And doesn't their coffee taste like unfiltered charcoal?

Of course. Starbucks sucks.

Starbucks Corporation has a history of opening new chain locations where a locally owned business is prospering. This quote is from an unnamed former employee: "Starbucks purposely finds the little, privately owned coffee shops and drives them out of business. It is their agenda to monopolize the market and get rid of any competition. This is how they plan their real estate."

Starbucks also has reneged on promises to feature Fair Trade Coffee. Due to the pressure of PLANTA's grassroots campaign, Starbucks introduced whole bean Fair Trade Certified coffee to 2,300 stores on October 4, 2000. Starbucks promised they would brew Fair Trade coffee once a month. Yet this promise has been a token effort. The other 29-30 days of the month Starbucks continues to feature coffee that exploits agriculture workers. According to PLANTA: "Many small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are less than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt."

Starbucks also has a history of questionable treatment of their workers. Starbucks just settled a class action suit in California in which former workers were awarded 18 million for cheating workers out of pay and other wrongdoing.

The Starbux Sux Project will meet August 2nd at 6pm in the apartment above the East End Community Thrift Shop, 5123 on Penn Ave. next to the TMC. The meeting is not too far from the new Starbucks on Liberty Ave. You know, the Starbucks that used to be an independently owned theater and is really close to a bunch of COOL non-chain coffee shops.

We hope to show when big corporations move in, local businesses go bankrupt. When the corporate agenda invades the third world, indigenous people suffer the same fate. Being a project sprouted from the Pittsburgh Organizing Group, Starbux Sux supports a consensus-based model and diversity of tactics, and plans to work closely with other local efforts against corporate globalization and neo-liberalism. We could use your creativity and energy to spread this message, so please attend the first planning meeting of The Starbux Sux Project.

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