SOS: Save Our Starbucks Movement Forming
You might not expect grassroots organizers to get behind the bastion of corporate coffeehouses, but "Save our Starbucks" is an emerging effort mobilized by nostalgic consumers, not ready to lose their neighborhood store. As much as people loved carping about the massive, un-indie global chain, now they're devastated to see certain Starbucks go. Even if another one sits a mile away, it's not the same; it's not your Starbucks.
Online petitions have formed on the "Save our Starbucks" website, where people are urging each other to "stop the insanity." A loss of Starbucks symbolizes a loss of community. As the Dallas Morning News points out, it's more than a logo, it's a hang-out for young and old, and very much a middle-class status symbol. If your neighborhood can afford a four-buck coffee, you get a Starbucks, and that's validating for many Americans. Affected areas thus represent a "downwardly mobile" part of town.
As reader Adrian Riojas commented on the Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, "it's more than just a food chain or brand. It's part of who we are." When he and his wife met in college, they frequented the Green Oaks and Cooper location, where they "laughed and studied" almost nightly. "Our relationship grew into what it is today thanks to the great conversations we had over our coffee there."
Is your store vulnerable? Are you holding back tears?
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18 Comments:
Hilarious. While there are four (or is it five?) within walking distance of me on the Lower East Side, the only time I've ever been in a Starbucks was on a freezing day in Boston, when I would've downed lighter fluid to warm up. And it probably would've tasted better.
Barbara Hanson at 11:51AM on 07/23/08
i enter starbucks to use the bathroom on occasion, but never, ever for coffee.
cybercita at 11:58AM on 07/23/08
The only thing I bought from a Starbucks was a Izze drink and it was out of a dire need to quench my thirst. Please wipe those 600 stores out already.
victorylow at 12:18PM on 07/23/08
I'll admit that I was sorry to see one of those Dallas area Starbucks go. There's one down the street from the Green Oaks & Cooper location - the first in that area back in the 90s - at Arbrook & Cooper. For an exurban teenager, this seemed like a real connection to city life (and it was the only place to sit around in that area for years). My first coffee! That said: I haven't been in that place in five years. Why bother when I can more easily access one of the other locations - placed in better traffic flows - also on Cooper Street? I don't think that makes that area of town "downwardly mobile," but instead - overly saturated. How can you feel true nostalgia for a particular location when the next location is built exactly like it? All that is different is the view in the parking lot.
pookywookyster at 12:22PM on 07/23/08
@pookywookyster, it's funny that you say it was a good teen hangout. When I was in high school in the early 90's, when Starbucks was first expanding, we were pretty excited they were building one in the neighborhood. Too bad they were really rude to the high school kids, and did everything they could to shoo us out of there. Now most of the Starbucks that I go into are packed wall-to-wall with loud, obnoxious high schoolers, all of whom are buying the various milkshake-esque products and never actual coffee...
rheogs at 12:49PM on 07/23/08
A friend recently told me there was a Starbucks located inside the hospital where he had surgery. I thought he was kidding, but it's true. Apparently there's quite a few hospitals with their own Starbucks store.
I wonder if any of those are getting closed...
FastFoodCritic at 12:50PM on 07/23/08
I'm not a coffee drinker so I guess I don't "get" it, but I would imagine in most big cities with many Starbucks people will just drift along to the next closest location or other coffee shop/cafe type place. Things happen, people move on...
allikazoo at 12:53PM on 07/23/08
@FastFoodCritic: Probably not. Most of those stores (like the ones inside grocery stores and bookstores) are licenced franchises of a sort, and not corporate stores. I'm pretty sure that Starbucks is only closing stores they directly control.
rheogs at 12:54PM on 07/23/08
@rheogs: Ah yes, good point. Thanks!
FastFoodCritic at 1:01PM on 07/23/08
Please. I can't cry a tear for Starbucks, when they helped to force most of the local college hangouts/coffee shops out in my city. Try going to a local restaurant or coffee shop for once. Why bother with a nationalized chain of crappy service and product yet again?
Varuna77 at 1:10PM on 07/23/08
What's next, Save Our Walmart? Save Our Olive Garden?
steveray at 1:31PM on 07/23/08
Isn't Wal-Mart's plan similar? Expand, kill off the competition, and close the store since consumers can drive to the one 10 or 15 minutes further away. Repeat. I'm sure we'll see "save our Wal-Marts!" soon.
SBUX may be closing stores, but how many of those "community" SBUX stores killed off a pre-existing coffee shop? I mentioned that SBUX in Arlington - that store was the only place to hang out because it did kill off a small bar/coffee shop half a mile down the road. (Why, as teenagers, we were allowed to hang out in either place is now beyond me.)
pookywookyster at 1:58PM on 07/23/08
@steveray: well said! I'm sure there is more important things to save than a billion-dollar corporation's profits at the moment.
"A loss of Starbucks symbolizes a loss of community"? haha
hungrychristel at 2:00PM on 07/23/08
@steveray: Olive Garden is one thing, but don't be hating on Walmart.
SamsClub & Walmart are vital to my survival. lol :)
FastFoodCritic at 2:00PM on 07/23/08
DIE STARBUCKS DIE!!!!!
simon at 2:48PM on 07/23/08
If the loss of a Starbucks symbolizes the loss of a community then this society is in a sad and sorry state. I try to frequent the small mom& pop places first. I'll go to 7-11 for coffee before I'd walk into a Stabuck's.
RichardCrystal at 3:47PM on 07/23/08
@pooky:
To be fair, I can name 1 coffee shop in my town, and the three surrounding towns, that MAY have existed before Starbucks. My knowledge isn't encyclopedic, but if you wanted 'coffee' before Starbucks, people generally went to diners (what can I say? It's an NJ thing). On the other hand, I can name a dozen just in my town that have sprung up since the growth of Starbucks in the area.
stratusgd at 5:01PM on 07/23/08
Because of the franchises in grocery stores, I've seen two or three Starbucks shops in one parking lot. One in Target, one in Safeway, and one freestanding. Too much!!!! Why couldn't the extra free-standing Starbucks close? Instead, the corporation is closing the one at the truck stop 10 minutes away from town by the freeway. Now, I'll admit, when my husband and I are on a road trip, sometimes we need something caffeinated from Starbucks, and we'll stop if it's easy to see off the freeway.
S-bucks put one in right across from a mom and pop coffee shop. The mom and pop remains one of the main town hangouts.
misseditor at 6:43PM on 07/23/08