“I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free…”
Sometimes a thing happens that you don’t want to happen, so you use your right to free speech and assembly and you make a ruckus and let the powers that be know of your position, and sometimes it actually works and you create a change, and that big national chain doesn’t take over your beloved local cafe, or that international corporation stops funding human rights abuses in the name of profit.
And sometimes, just sometimes, the result you hope for is that your favorite Starbucks store remains open in the face of 600 planned closures. Why would you use your right to free speech and assembly to effect this change? Because you are a dork. Seriously, don’t even talk to us. From the Wall Street Journal:
In towns as small as Bloomfield, N.M., and metropolises as large as New York, customers and city officials are starting to write letters, place phone calls, circulate petitions and otherwise plead with the coffee company to change its mind.
“Now that it’s going away, we’re devastated,” said Kate Walker, a facilities manager for software company SunGard Financial Systems who recently learned of a store closing in New York City.
MenuPages lists 146 coffee houses in the New York coverage area. This does not include Dunkin’ Donuts, Peet’s, corner bodegas or Starbucks, which probably add a couple thousand more coffee options. There is, literally, coffee available on every corner in New York, and the saturation is almost as thick in most U.S. cities.
We defy you to claim that Starbucks is your only coffee option, whether you live in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Florida or yes, even Bloomfield, New Mexico. All of these cities had coffee shops before the inception of Starbucks and all will continue to have them after these stores close. And of all the letter-writing and petition campaigns in the world, this might be the least valuable. Really? This is worth getting into activism for?
This is not even a thing against Starbucks. They’re just doing what they have to do in these lean economic times. If you really are “devastated” about the loss of your local green giant to the point that you will petition to keep it open, you, sir or ma’am, are a total dork.
Though now we know how it must have felt to be derisive of those who petitioned against these stores opening willy-nilly in the first place.
Full List of Store Closures [Starbucks]
Starbucks Gets Pleas Not to Close Stores [Wall Street Journal]
[Photo: People protest a Starbucks opening in New York via Yoonabomber/flickr]
