Starbucks sees decline in US, but when will it happen in the UK?
Starbucks Corporation is to close 600 company-operated US stores in the next year, a considerable hike from its previous plan for 100 closures. It’s a potent indicator of just how screwed the US economy is, but we can only wonder how long it will be before the company starts shutting up shop around the world, particularly in Britain, where many alcoholic drinks in pubs cost far less than Starbucks-branded concoctions.
In the US the cutbacks will impact on over 12,000 workers. Starbucks claims that most of the employees will be moved to nearby stores, and so a spokesperson did not ‘know exactly’ how many jobs will be lost. What a fortuitous expression of ignorance that is, given that job losses never make for news stories onto which a positive spin can be applied.
In May, Starbucks said its second-quarter profit sank 28% has US consumers cut back on visits in light of rising food and gas prices. Yet Americans have never had to swallow, along with their cappuccinos and skinny lattes, the prices that thousands of Brits have seemed willing to pay for many years. A group of four people—say two parents, two children—going to a UK Starbucks and buying for all, just drinks, is lucky to get change from a £20 note (that’s $40 US dollars). Add a few sandwiches to the mix, maybe a muffin or two, and it’s easy to end up spending over £30 ($60 US dollars). It’s all way too much moolah to be spending on coffee when belts the world over are tightening.
It’s a mad old world when thousands upon thousands of Brits refuse to pay anything but small change for dead animals for the table, claiming they can’t afford animal welfare considerations, and bewail the high price of petrol, but are happy to pay through the nose for sugary and milky caffeine shots, even as recession or even depression starts to bite. A mess of inconsistencies, a strange approach to what we label food essentials, and an apparent inability to spend within our means as a nation, or even feed ourselves from our own back gardens… It surely can’t continue for much longer. And the greater the excesses, the bigger the excuses, the tougher the time people will have when everything crashes down around them.
For once it seems Americans, in turning away from coffee shop spending, might be proving themselves more willing to make cuts and accept curbs on their lifestyles than the British. Whatever happened to the spirit of the Blitz, that steely courage and ‘make do’ philosophy? The character of Britain today is far different to that which our eldest citizens remember. But you either make changes, or have them forced upon you. One can be done with enthusiasm, turning negatives into positives; the other will involve screaming, sulking, misdirected anger, worry and fear. I know which path I choose. What about you? Do you know how to use a needle and thread to darn socks, or how to bake a cake? if not, maybe now is the time to start learning.
As for coffee, well… It is what it is. And you can buy a bag of fairly traded, organic coffee to last you a few weeks for much less than a grande whatever at Starbucks would cost you.
tags: coffee, corporations, depression, recession, spending, Starbucks
6 comments on “Starbucks sees decline in US, but when will it happen in the UK?”
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 am
Our elders did have the changes forced upon them by virtue of a Great Depression sandwiched by wars, and I think you may have a point in that it takes something like that to force changes to happen. I am proud to say I have never been in a Starbucks. It is a lifestyle/fashion choice I have never made. I do think style choices may lead people to think they are “cool” if they go to Starbucks (or even, shockingly, emulating the US cousins some people seem to admire). Meat-eating has never had that “cool/uncool” argument so changes with regard to sourcing meat products are not even thought about.
I do sometimes think the majority of people are just stupid. I don’t mean can’t think, I mean don’t think. That is the attitude which needs to be addressed, and is the hardest one to fight. You cannot force people to think.
We do seem to be heading for another depression. Maybe that is what it will take. Did you see on the news today a family of four need £27,000 to live on? How the hell does a family of four survive on that? I assume it must be after tax, otherwise… that explains Primark!
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I must admit, Starbucks concoctions are appealing and, for some, not me, highly addictive. But I’m put off by any and all mega-corporations, preferring a small local coffee shop to standardised ones all over the place. Yeah, I saw that news story… What an offensive joke. I mean, £13,000 per annum for a single person and on incapacity benefits, let alone the lesser amounts of normal unemployment benefits, people get just over £4,000 per annum. That’s excluding any help with council tax or rent or mortgages, and while I get IB I am ineligible for all the others as my partner is expected to pay for everything (not by me–by the DSS!). x
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:03 am
They are still going to open around 200 new stores in other areas, too. I love their mochas, but I haven’t paid for a Starbucks drink after they basically forced Cameron to quit over having to go to the hospital and being out of work for a couple of weeks.
Thankfully, he had the job at the winery all ready lined up.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:17 am
Wow, that’s harsh but not surprising re: Cameron being forced to quit. Companies these days on this side of the water, too, are getting worse in how they treat employees. x
July 4th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I am reading a very interesting book called Bushwhacked by Molly Ivins (sadly no longer with us - but a brilliant political reporter) which gives startling and depressing information about (so far) the economics of the US. What is really scaring me is how similar our government is, how government and private business are actually polar opposites but that the political climate is now that they go hand-in-hand with big business being more important than the people. Starbucks are a primary case in point. We are turning into the US and this is most definitely NOT a good thing!
July 5th, 2008 at 8:16 am
I’ve heard of that book, and that it’s scary–although you probably agree it’s putting into black and white the kind of shenanigans–no, too soft a word–crimes Bush and his fan base commit.
I think the desire to turn into the US goes back a long way. Certainly when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, there was an envy of all the big fast food places, the affluence, places like Disneyland before there was a European one…. And, of course, nobody knew where adopting the greed and overconsumption would get us all. Britain, by contrast, seemed very small and very impoverished–despite having such an amazing history of creatives from Shakespeare to Ted Hughes, from painters to poets to playwrights. People didn’t care and still don’t care abot culture for the most part. They want burgers, Mickey Mouse, and big houses. x
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