Starbucked by Taylor Clark

Author:Taylor Clark [CLARK, TAYLOR]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: BUS000000
ISBN: 9780316026178
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2007-11-04T16:00:00+00:00

A Tale of Two Cities

So let’s say your petition has failed, the protests you organized weren’t strident enough, and the carefully constructed leaflets you sent out — perhaps featuring a cartoon of a mermaid spanking a cute puppy — didn’t sway public opinion. Now a brand-new Starbucks sticks its green tongue out at you from within a cluster of charming restaurants and antiques stores. What can you expect, other than the sinking feeling of defeat? Will this tentacle of the great coffee monstrosity drain the life out of your neighborhood, or will it actually enhance the community?

It depends. Taking the usual approach to this question, we’d want to examine the existing research into how chain stores and locally owned independents each affect a local economy. Without fail, these studies have found that more cash recirculates locally when customers patronize an independent, because mom-and-pop business owners hire local accountants, buy merchandise from local vendors, blow through their profits at local strip clubs, and so forth; chains just funnel the proceeds to some distant corporate bank account. One such investigation, conducted in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood by the firm Civic Economics, found this discrepancy to be quite significant. After probing the books at ten chain stores and ten independents, the researchers discovered that for every $100 spent at a mom and pop, an average of $73 of that recirculated in the local economy, while the figure for chains was just $43. Which makes sense; strictly speaking, the whole purpose of a chain store is to tap into a community’s cash pool and reroute the funds to company investors.

According to Stacy Mitchell, author of The Hometown Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores and Why It Matters, we also need to bear in mind that chain stores can undermine a community by making it more bland. “People want to visit a neighborhood because of its uniqueness and charm,” she explained. “There’s a danger if you’re an urban neighborhood or downtown, and you’re not offering anything that can’t be found at a mall, where there’s weather control and plenty of parking. You risk losing that advantage.”

But the typical approach doesn’t quite work with Starbucks, because it’s not like other chain stores. Sure, its profits flow straight to Seattle, but some believe this bloodletting is justified by the benefits that the Starbucks stamp of approval confers on an area. Let’s look back for a moment at the main gentrifying effects that accompany a new Starbucks, which the Brookings Institution report lists as follows: changing neighborhood flavor, increased tax revenue, displacement of poor residents, escalating property values, and fresh commercial activity. Flourishing places like Hosford-Abernethy in Portland might shudder at the thought of these forces altering a neighborhood they already love as is, but literally thousands of depressed towns and communities salivate over them. Fundamentally, their government leaders and planning boards are seeking out gentrification, with all of the new development and skyrocketing income it entails. For every community that starts into the usual

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