{"id":173,"date":"2013-07-20T00:07:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T00:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/?p=173"},"modified":"2016-08-11T04:18:15","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T04:18:15","slug":"starbucks-spurns-fort-lee-children-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/?p=173","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks Spurns Fort Lee Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Starbucks Coffee prints a motto on the back of their business cards:\u00a0 \u201cOne person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.\u201d\u00a0 <\/i>If you read it carefully, it sounds a bit like the credo of an Alien nation about to invade Earth.<\/p>\n

For the record, Seattle is a nice town, or at least when the smog is not creating total overcast.\u00a0 The Space Needle is spectacular and Grey\u2019s Anatomy is not a bad show, all things being considered.\u00a0\u00a0 So any opinions I may have regarding Starbucks and its policies are no reflection on Seattle in general.<\/p>\n

Starbucks is a mega-corporation, opening new franchises in every major community, with stores often in shouting distance from one another. Fort Lee is endowed with two branches, where battery acid is sold for approximately $ 2.00 per cup and baked goods are sold for $ 1.95 to $ 2.25 per item.\u00a0\u00a0 Frappuccinos and Cappuccinos are sold for $ 4.00+.\u00a0 Coffee is sold by the pound for $11.95 and tea is sold for $ 4.95 per box.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cStarbucks Logo merchandise\u201d is pandered, where the public can advertise the brand by purchasing an overpriced cup, a thermos, a T-Shirt or a hat.\u00a0 Coffee grinders and coffee machines are on sale for premium prices.\u00a0 They even carry CDs for your car stereos.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that \u201cSTARBUCKS MINTS MONEY\u201d.\u00a0 And from the massive crowds in the morning and evening at the Whiteman Plaza branch and the Linwood Plaza branch, it is my suspicion that these two Starbucks are extremely successful , ranking with top grossing Starbucks stores around the nation.<\/p>\n

I recently approached the store manager, Alysa Yeager, at the Whiteman Plaza branch and requested that Starbucks make a small cash donation to a fundraising campaign for the Fort Lee school children.\u00a0 Alysa reluctantly took my information, informing me that she had to speak to \u201ccorporate\u201d. Three weeks later I returned, whereupon Alysa informed me that she had been too busy to speak to corporate, but she was sure that it was Starbucks policy \u201cnot to advertise locally\u201d or to \u201cmake cash donations\u201d to the community.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I requested that she check with \u201ccorporate\u201d to verify that and to please get back to me, i.e. I would return in a few days.\u00a0 On Monday, July 15, I returned and Alysa stated that cash donations violated company policy, but that I could speak to her superior.<\/p>\n

Upon returning to my office, I called Corporate Headquarters in Seattle and spoke to Veronica Park, whose title on her business card was listed as \u201cCoffee Master\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 I am uncertain where \u201ccoffee master\u201d ranks in the Starbucks hierarchy, but the title is almost comical in its lack of creativity.\u00a0\u00a0 One might extrapolate that the corporate execs probably call the hard working, lower level employees of each Starbucks \u201ccoffee grinds\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms. Park was very cordial and pleasant, while she read to me from her corporate script.\u00a0 To paraphrase Ms. Park, \u201cStarbucks has a corporate policy where local managers may donate two pounds of coffee per month locally.\u00a0 We also will contribute coffee to any local charitable fundraisers. Finally, we have a community program where our employees are encouraged to volunteer to do community service with a $ 10 compensation\u201d. (I am uncertain if this was $ 10 per hour, but it is totally irrelevant.)\u00a0\u00a0 I explained to her that (1) two pounds of coffee per month costs them less than $ 10 and that my friends and I spend far more than that each week at the Whiteman Plaza location; (2) coffee donations to a few fundraisers per year were at minimal cost; and (3) that the community service program was more PR than an actual benefit.\u00a0 Our conversation concluded rather abruptly when I decided that enough time had been wasted on what was clearly a dead end.<\/p>\n

The Whiteman Plaza Starbucks is frequented by high school kids and parents dropping their children off at School #1 in the morning. The Linwood Plaza Starbucks is heavily supported by high school kids and parents droppings kids off at Fort Lee High School and School #3.\u00a0\u00a0 Is it asking so much for a few hundred dollars to help our kids?\u00a0 Apparently so.<\/p>\n

In fundraising efforts to benefit the children of Fort Lee, local businesses have been extremely generous.\u00a0\u00a0 Delis and restaurants, local business people, doctors and lawyers, banks, etc. have all contributed.\u00a0\u00a0 We have raised several thousand dollars for the children, but not one dime was contributed from Starbucks.\u00a0\u00a0 So unless we plan on having a celebratory party for the donors, where we serve coffee (but no more than two pounds), we had better not depend on Starbucks to support our kids.<\/p>\n

It should be clear that the criticism of Starbucks is not that they are doing nothing, but that they are financially capable of doing so much more.\u00a0\u00a0 Our kids need textbooks and computers, lab equipment, and new desks.\u00a0 Our sports teams need new uniforms and equipment.\u00a0 We have a high school field in total disrepair, with a running track that needs to be totally replaced. \u00a0We have buildings that need major upgrades as well as new classrooms.\u00a0 And Starbucks wants to donate a few pounds of coffee.\u00a0\u00a0 A company as powerful as Starbucks has the ability to remedy so many of the deficiencies in the schools.\u00a0\u00a0 But the \u201ccorporate credo\u201d is no cash donations to the community, while it counts its vast profits from the Fort Lee franchises.(<\/b>Google: Wikipedia.org: the net worth of Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks is an estimated $1.5 billion.)\u00a0<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

So, next time, before plopping down a $10 bill to buy a few overpriced frappuccinos at Starbucks in Fort Lee or to buy a \u201cStarbucks\u201d cup to advertise their products, maybe we should reconsider whether we want to spend our hard earned money supporting a billion dollar corporation that contributes very little to local communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starbucks Coffee prints a motto on the back of their business cards:\u00a0 \u201cOne person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.\u201d\u00a0 If you read it carefully, it sounds a bit like the credo of an Alien nation about to invade Earth. For the record, Seattle is a nice town, or at least when the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}