• kae@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Whether you go to Starbucks or not is kind of irrelevant. The broader population needs to know how Starbucks is anti-worker. They are happy to take more money from the consumer, and push the “partner” narrative, but it falls apart when the partners want to be treated with dignity.

    That’s a story everyone needs to hear before they spend $5+ on a drink.

    • NotAPenguin@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The broader population needs to know how Starbucks is anti-worker

      And what should the broader population do with that information?
      Stop going to starbucks perhaps?

      When you’re against something you should stop financially support it.

      • IHeartBadCode@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        When you’re against something you should stop financially support it.

        Yes. But it should be said, it cannot just stop there. People need to indicate to their various governments that union busting should be prosecuted no matter the billionaire doing the busting or the third party they hired.

        I think too often people rely on the “you should vote with your wallet” that they forget, we cannot buy our way out of social ills. Spending our money on the “correct” product and not spending it on the “incorrect” product isn’t a panacea. And worse it can breed superficial support in companies to simply convince you to buy more of their shit. I think we’ve made enough memes about Eddard Stark warning us that with Pride month, the rainbows are coming to social media.

        I think that’s the key point. Not going to Starbucks is one thing BUT it cannot stop there, otherwise no Real ™ change is actually going to happen. Lots of people are just tangentially caring about the issue for lots of various reasons. We need to implement change at every level. People should talk to their mayor, their city council, governor, State assembly, and what not.

        Starbucks spends money so they can see results quickly, and since us common folks are not wealthy beyond belief, we’ve got to take the long and time expensive route. It cannot just be “just stop spending your money there” that alone is never going to work and breeds even worse results, with ads just pretending they’re buddy buddy with you.

    • downpunxx@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      no dipshit. whether you got to starbucks or not is immanently relevant. if you go to starbucks, you should stop. if you don’t go to starbucks you shouldn’t start. it’s literally the point of the initial post and the discussion of it.

      • kae@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        A wee bit aggressive there.

        Read the rest of the thread. “I can’t boycott what I don’t use” is everywhere. A boycott is more than money, it’s getting the message out there, which was the intent of my post.

  • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Boycotts are funny. I can’t boycott something I don’t really buy. I only go when a customer wants it. Otherwise I don’t go because I don’t like their product. Their politics are secondary to my decision their coffee is crap.

    • Venutianxspring@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      I keep telling people their coffee is garbage, but you can’t tell with all the sweetener and flavors they add. An espresso or regular coffee at Starbucks? 🤮

      • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I’m not a fan of their coffee at all. I work in sales, so if a customer wants it. I buy it but otherwise I skip them.

        I don’t like their union bashing but I’d have to be a customer to boycott it.

        I’m a conservative but I support unions. It’s a check and balance to the system. We need strong unions. I also fully support unions being on the board of companies.

        I could rant how I dislike boards. They’re supposed to keep things running and they do a shit Job. They do a great job of making everyone focus on the ceo who is controlled by the board.

        • Turkey_Titty_city@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          People on the board are shit at their jobs because most boards are full of people who don’t ever work at the company. They exterior consultants for the most part. Every business I have worked for, the board was a bunch of wealthy folks who showed up like 1-2x a year for the board meetings, but otherwise had zero idea what anyone did or who anyone was other than the C-suite.

          • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Depending on the company. The ceo may be on the board which I don’t think should be allowed. Nobody at the company should be on the board since it’s to govern their behavior. They should also be legally and criminally libel since they’re the governance. Right now it’s a big circle jerk of friends getting their friends on the board and making each other ceo.

            For private companies I don’t care but public companies need more accountability.

  • Turkey_Titty_city@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I don’t understand why people like Starbucks so much. Their coffee is nasty and so is their food. But people are addicted to it. All my relatives have the app and spend like $50+ a week there.

    Only reason I ever go is because I’m roadtripping at 6am and it’s the only place open that early. The indie coffee shops don’t open until 8am.

    • MrBananaMan@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Their coffee is nasty and so is their food.

      That’s subjective, and clearly a large portion of people disagree with it.

      • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Honestly their forte is consistency. You’ll damn near guaranteed to get the exact same cup of coffee/latte and sandwich in the middle of nowhere Arkansas as you are in downtown NYC.

        • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I just wish that consistent flavor was something more than ash.

          Not joking, that is essentially the strategy. It’s very hard to get coffee beans from a hundred different farms to taste the same all over the world. That task gets much much easier if you simply burn them to a crisp so that all the varied flavor gets burned away.

    • DeepFriedDresden@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Where are you that indie coffee shops aren’t open at 6am? I just looked at all the coffee shops near me and they all open 6:30 or earlier except for one located inside a mall.

      • Turkey_Titty_city@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Boston. Indies open at 8am and close at 2pm. Starbucks is open like 6am-9pm. If I want a coffee at 3pm I am stuck with Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. Indies can’t afford to be open an extra 7 hours where they are doing very little business.

        • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Redneck Florida here. We don’t even have a Starbucks, but the locally owned coffee drive-thru is open early to get the high school kids.

    • Hegar@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Starbucks tried to open in Australia but failed to get any significant market share because Australians just prefer drinkable coffee.

    • Maeve@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Tbh a lot of gas stations are using better coffee. A lot of people stop at Starbucks because it’s on the way to work, and they add caffeine, iirc, so their coffee is more addictive.

    • finthechat@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      People don’t go to Starbucks for the physical products, they go there for the complementary handjobs.

    • Cylusthevirus@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I would say go use it if you have a gift card. They already have the money, might as well cost them some product instead of giving them an interest free loan.

      I’d suggest having them remake it a bunch if that didn’t fuck over some poor barista. Although … that would be pretty funny for the pro-union stores if they were in on it.

    • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I think the bar for being “a giant piece of shit” should probably be a little higher than the act of getting a coffee. I mean, if customers are giant pieces of shit, what are the Starbucks executives? Galactic boulders of excrement?

      Jokes aside and more practically speaking, I think it’s more productive to urge people to consider patronizing their local cafes - or learning how to make good coffee at home - instead of trying to shame people who probably don’t know or honestly care that much about random labor disputes for getting a coffee. Beyond being more positive, it’s less likely to annoy people into spite.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Calls for a consumer boycott of Starbucks are growing amid mounting criticism of the coffee chain’s aggressive union-busting activities.

    A boycott, supporters say, would aim to use consumer power to pressure Starbucks to stop its union-busting and illegal actions and to finally negotiate its first union contract.

    The union has scheduled a nationwide Day of Action on 14 September to urge “customers and allies to join the fight” to get Starbucks to “respect workers’ fundamental right to organize and bargain a fair contract”.

    Ganz said the grape boycott succeeded because not just farm workers backed it, but because “it was students, civil rights groups, churches, labor unions.

    The former labor secretary Robert Reich, who is a Guardian columnist, said: “Until Starbucks enters into good-faith negotiations with its unionized employees – and ceases its union-busting efforts – we consumers must stop enabling this anti-worker, anti-union behavior.

    Some labor experts say Starbucks is the country’s most notorious union buster since JP Stevens, a major textile company that mounted a fierce anti-union campaign in the 1960s and 1970s that included widespread illegalities.


    The original article contains 1,209 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!