Starbucks closing 600 more stores

times are tough for the Seattle coffee giant.
read all about it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25482250/

times are hard for big coffee

hooray for the little guys

This is some of the best news I've read all day. I am so sick of chains spreading like a virus and over-saturating.

This is some of the best news I've read all day. I am so sick of chains spreading like a virus and over-saturating.

Yeah...I feel great knowing so many moms & dads will lose their jobs working for the evil chain!

i don't think that we're expressing glee over job losses

but the joy comes from watching a mega corp get spanked
the joy is even sweeter, because it comes from their greed for market control

we don't need starbucks on every corner (and in some cases directly across from each other)

generally speaking, i haven't seen a lot of parents working at starbucks lately (mainly high school and college kids making $10+ an hour to sling over priced lattes over the counter)

the closing of these stores also allows more opportunity for independently owned and operated business to open in former starbucks locations (whether they be coffee shops, restaurants, or retail stores)

It's certainly a best-case scenario that all 600 closed Starbucks will magically become independently owned businesses.

When I lived out West, I had a co-worker who also worked for Starbucks part-time. She quit our store when they offered her a full-time job. Eventually, they rewarded her hard work by giving her a store to manage.

I don't see any good coming from her and others like her losing their jobs, unless Schadenfreude is suddenly a virtue.

The jobs were "artificial" logically speaking, a result of the bad management strategy of expanding too quickly and aggressively.

Let's see . . .

Starbuck's is the largest, but has bad management (or had it) and is "evil" . . .

Caribou Coffee is the second largest, and is owned by the First Islamic Investment Bank (now Arcapita) out of Bahrain and run by a Sharia group headed by a Saudi retired religious judge . . .

I guess I have to go local on this one!

This is some of the best news I've read all day. I am so sick of chains spreading like a virus and over-saturating.

Yeah...I feel great knowing so many moms & dads will lose their jobs working for the evil chain!

Good post Mark.

And now those of us who are still working get to support them right? It is just great when any American who works for a chain loses their job, isn't it? Some of you folks on this board are just insufferable. Unless someone did something to really merit losing their job, it is beyond me why anyone would take joy from that loss.

I support the local businesses as much as anyone on this board, but fail to understand why the hate towards chains. Real people, possibly including our friends and families, work for these places. Not everything can be local nor can everything be a chain. I see no problem with a healthy balance. At least Starbucks is based in America. How many companies have sold out to overseas entities. I think some people need to widen the narrow vision a bit.

Eventually, they rewarded her hard work by giving her a store to manage.

i'm sorry, but i find this phrase to be representative of the corp mentality
work hard and the company will "give" you a store to manage

and then they'll exercise an extensive and aggressive "new store" program, where they'll expand too quickly and not have enough qualified persons to fill all the management positions and some kid with half of your experience will be placed in similar management position, running a newer store, and because he lacks the experience, he'll run that store into the ground, and thus the company begins to hemorrhage money from its many new stores and when they finally realize what is happening, they'll slam on the brakes and close 600 stores at the same time, and yes, the store you were so graciously given to manage, it closes too

not to mention that "management" positions in the service industry (especially the corp part of this industry) can be more work and less money

there are a couple of lawsuits out there against corp restaurants for placing managers on salary and essentially forcing them to work more than 50 hours per week, while not paying for overtime, or allowing them to earn tips (the end result being that some managers were actually earning less than minimum wage)

again, let me state for the record and for those who don't read the complete post

i am not taking joy over the loss of jobs

i do take joy over a large corp tripping over its unusually large feet and falling on its face

the funny part is
that the pro-corp side of this argument doesn't see that the cause of these job losses is poor strategy from the corp

if starbucks had been more cautious in their plans for growth, perhaps they would not have had to close so many stores
(this is the company that boasted about opening X number of stores a day, right??)

Let's see . . .

Starbuck's is the largest, but has bad management (or had it) and is "evil" . . .

Caribou Coffee is the second largest, and is owned by the First Islamic Investment Bank (now Arcapita) out of Bahrain and run by a Sharia group headed by a Saudi retired religious judge . . .

I guess I have to go local on this one!

That's interesting... but there aren't any Caribou Coffee shops in Louisville are there?

again, let me state for the record and for those who don't read the complete post

i am not taking joy over the loss of jobs

i do take joy over a large corp tripping over its unusually large feet and falling on its face

the funny part is
that the pro-corp side of this argument doesn't see that the cause of these job losses is poor strategy from the corp

if starbucks had been more cautious in their plans for growth, perhaps they would not have had to close so many stores
(this is the company that boasted about opening X number of stores a day, right??)

First off I'm a small business owner...so I get the managment issue as well as anyone on this board. But "glee" over any corporation closing this number of stores is seriously misplaced IMO. So that fact that Ford, GE, Bank of America, take your pick are laying off thousands should approach orgasmic.....right?

Let's see . . .

Starbuck's is the largest, but has bad management (or had it) and is "evil" . . .

Caribou Coffee is the second largest, and is owned by the First Islamic Investment Bank (now Arcapita) out of Bahrain and run by a Sharia group headed by a Saudi retired religious judge . . .

I guess I have to go local on this one!

That's interesting... but there aren't any Caribou Coffee shops in Louisville are there?

No, none in Louisville. I tend to run into them in Cleveland, where they are both free-standing and inside of a chain of grocery stores.

This is too go to be true!! Hating Corporations!! Ripped right off the list, coming in at #82 on "Stuff White People Like" I know its lame to even look at that site. But its often so true.