An aside about Starbucks: I know they hire a lot of students who work part-time, but I can't say what their wages are but they provide some benefits and employee ownership, or at least used to do so.
See Business Wire @ http://www.businesswire.com/cnn/sbux.shtml As far as I am concerned, Starbucks and others started out as small businesses and succeeded with a sound business plan and marketing. But where we must be vigilant is guarding against monopolies, which have more to do with greed and power than the bottom line, corporate skill or excellent product. Wal-Mart was very innovative with technology and marketing long before other supply chain retailers thought about it. That is to their credit. I have some privy corporate case studies in my possession that document this. But they have become a behemoth, and evolution teaches us that these do not survive long. In the meantime, we should be looking for less destructive, safer, more sustainable options. Too many of us were "asleep at the wheel" and didn't question, weren't involved, assumed this corporate empiricism was unfettered progress and the debris beside the road was the price for it. We are becoming more ecologically attuned economists, not out of vision as much as by the hard lessons on the ground. Greed and avarice do that, eventually. End of Sunday Sermon from me. - KWC Harry Pollard wrote: Ray, Respect and mutual responsibility means that where you cannot avoid interference you step back rather than intrude. If an appreciable number of people want to get a morning coffee from Starbucks, I think they should be allowed to get it. I have never bought a coffee from Starbucks. Should I be allowed to stop others from buying one? [snip] Brad wrote: There was a program (on PBS?) about a week ago about how Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has adopted a policy of paying the coffee growers (the real Juan Valdezes, i.e.) a fair price for their coffee, and teaching them how to grow coffee that is up to grade and even how to tell if their coffee is up to grade or not. The program said that the coffee growers themselves generally have never drank coffee, but prefer ultra sweet soda pop. One consequence of this is that they dump all their harvest of coffee beans together so that it is not usable by a company like Green Mountain. The show painted Green Mountain in a positive light. -- Now, anent Starbuck's. First let us look at the imagery: Starbuck was the sane officer on the Pequod who wanted to fill the ship with whale oil as fast as possible to get everyone back sately home and make a profit too. Captain Bush -- I meant Ahab -- wanted to pursue Moby Dick to the last drop (i.e., the bitter end). He did. I go to Starbuck's regularly to buy expresso beans for my home expresso machine, which is a low end industrial grade model I got via a neighbor who is in the coffee business. Part of my drinking my coffee is the coffee machine (and also the cup --> yes, I drink from the same cup every time, and meditate on its craftsmanship every time I use it.... Anyway, my roommate in college was the founder of Coffee Connection in Boston. I read in Mr. Whats His Name's book about how he built Starbusk's, that Coffee Connection was the only company he ever bought out instead of driving out of business (I saw the latter happen in Mt. Kisco, NY). So there must have "been something" about my former college roomate's business.... But my main feeling when I go into Starbusk's is to try to imagine the form of life of the employees -- how they can "live" on what they make, etc. I am also rather amazed that the guy (or woman) behind the expresso machine can remember all the different drinks they have to make -- I doubt I could do it. They can't be stupid. They work so hard. I don't know what they earn, but I can't imagine it's a fair return for their investment of themselves. So I have turned on the expresso machine and will make myself another cup of Starbusk's Expresso Roast, in part just for the ritual of making it of which this postimg reminded me, for Reflective re-appropriation of things that have proven worthwhile is the spice of life. [And the shrub responds without being asked: "Huh?"] _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
