Yesterday the Business page of the Statesman Journal told me, through an Associated Press story, that "Starbucks profits beat expectations." This surprised me a bit. Given the closing of hundreds of their cafes across the country, I ignorantly assumed they were having some troubles. Obviously I am far from obtaining an MBA because the only ones having troubles at Starbucks are apparently the workers.
According to the article, "Closing stores, laying off workers and cutting other costs helped Starbucks beat Wall Street's profit expectations for its fiscal third quarter." And though sales were down, "Investors cheered the results anyway, sending shares up $1.46, or 9.9 percent."
CEO Howard Schultz told investors that this shows "positive momentum." Well, I suppose it does, if you're a shareholder. But, if you're one of the workers now unemployed due to this fresh-brewed "momentum", it's doubtful your outlook is as positive. Wouldn't it be nice to see life through the looking glass of such corporate executives? Slash n' burn, make 10 percent?
Well, no. No it wouldn't, because I have a conscience.
This story reminded me of a video sent to me a while back by Robert Greenwald, the producer of many amazing documentaries and shorts. It concerns worker intimidation and anti-union practices at the aforementioned Starbucks.
Here is the video, as well as link to the site.
http://stopstarbucks.com/
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2 comments:
If there isn't a "Starbucks Watch" we need one. Now, they're opening up coffeeshops that don't look at all like Starbucks, but are Starbucks. So if people want to avoid corporate coffee, they will need to investigate before that cup of joe.
See story on NPR "Starbucks goes into stealth mode" at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=107006775
yeah, i heard about that. lots of companies are doing that. it's like tom's of maine being owned by colgate now. but, you can't find that anywhere on the tube of toothpaste.
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