No to Sheffield Starbucks

Hope you can keep Starbucks out, the bastards are everywhere over in Manchester.

For legal reasons it must be made as clear as possible, none of the outlets threatened by Starbucks have had anything to do with this website or any leaflets distributed.

Starbucks are apparently not happy about their logo being used/abused and are keen to find the persons responsible, let us be clear once again none of the places threatened have anything to do with it.

Interesting to hear the council has just passed a pro fair-trade motion this week, let’s just hope it’s not just a token effort and they will get behind those really trying to help fair-trade and noy just those wishing to exploit it's high fashion status like er.......... $tarbuck$

there was an anti-$tarbuck$ protest organised by San Diego IMC a few years ago - photos:

 http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2002/03/864.shtml

there's some information here about the Starbucks-Fair Trade campaign organised by the Organic Consumers Association:

 http://www.organicconsumers.org/Starbucks/index.htm

Tourists and Sheffield? Those are two words you don't normally hear in the same sentence.
good luck blocking starbucks though

Excuse my ignorance, but was is wrong with Starbucks?

"Excuse my ignorance, but was is wrong with Starbucks?" said ...

It's rank, no longer ignoranct. Also the toilets aren't as easy to negotiate as Borders or even the fat mac.

Are american chains all anal?

its about time starbucks came to sheffield...surely its going to create jobs? its reasonably priced, they use fair trade coffee and is consistently of a good standard. it's just an easy target...sure, their scatter bomb technique of opening new branches is somewhat dubious, but i can see the opening of one branch of starbucks in the city centre as only a good thing...better that than another theme bar or over-priced boutique...did all the restaurants close down when the first mcdonalds opened?

"...its reasonably priced..."
no it isn't.

"they use fair trade coffee"
they use a little, for marketing purposes: see below.

"and is consistently of a good standard."
no it isn't.

Here are several more excellent reasons to oppose Starbucks:
 http://revbilly.com/revsite/Sbucks/old/sbucks_flyer.html
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"The vague, earth-tone touchy-feeliness masks corporate ruthlessness worthy of our pals at General Motors, Nike, Microsoft, etc. We’d like you to consider boycotting Starbucks. Here’s why:

THEY’RE SCREWING THE PLANET
The factory farming techniques used by Starbucks’ coffee providers as unsustainable and environmentally devastating. In 1997 they released a vague, nice-sounding PR campaign stating that "hazardous materials such as chemicals and pesticides should be used safely and responsibly, if at all." Great, but what does that really mean? Not much. Starbucks gets their coffee from countries like Guatemala and Indonesia, where the local dictators won’t enforce environmental regulation (and even if they did, the WTO would put a stop to it).


THEY’RE SCREWING THE FARMERS
Starbucks gets its coffee from rural farmers that don’t know the market rates for coffee. In 1997, their PR campaign announced their vague "commitment to human rights." They haven’t followed through (not that they could have to begin with). They recently announced an appeasement deal with Global Exchange to produce a "Fair Trade" blend of humane coffee, but that’s just more PR maneuvering: it still has to compete with their cheaper, better-marketed inhumane coffee.


THEY’RE SCREWING THE BARISTAS
Just ask them! Only 12 of the 2,200 (and counting) Starbucks are unionized, and the ones that are (all under the Canadian Auto Workers’ Local 3000) have experienced steadfast corporate greed every time they tried to pursue things like fair wages, earned sick leave, and stable work schedules.

THEY’RE SCREWING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS
...and drowning us in a sea of identical details! Using their own version of the Microsoft strategy, they’re pouring money into opening as many stores as possible, cutting off the oxygen supply of their competition. Their monopoly destroys the mom & pop greasy spoons and bohemian coffee bars that make our neighborhoods unique.

THEY’RE SCREWING YOU
Three bucks for a cup of coffee that costs them between seven and twelve cents? And them with $424 million (plus) in net revenues? Come on.

THEY’RE SCREWING THAT MERMAID THING
She had nipples once, until the corporate types decided that nipples were unseemly and airbrushed them off. Don’t they have nipples? At the Church of Stop Shopping, we like nipples."
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You can add to this list:
THEY'RE SCREWING THE PALESTINIANS
Their CEO Howard Schultz is an active supporter of the Sharon government, and an apologist for IDF actions in Palestine. Howard Schultz told a crowded temple of Jewish Americans on Seattle's Capitol Hill in April that the reasons behind the current conflict in the region stemmed from "anti-Semitism", blatantly ignoring the fact that Israeli non-compliance with international law calling on it to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands; the systematic assassinations and targeting of unarmed Palestinian men, women and children; and the besiegement of the chosen government of the Palestinian people are the fundamental reasons behind the conflict.
He has also called on "every Jew in America" to rise up and defend Israel at any cost.

Although a retraction was issued some weeks later, the apology did not come from Schultz personally but was instead written on his behalf by his marketing staff.

Schultz was presented with "The Israel 50th Anniversary Tribute Award" - The Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah in August 27, 1998

The Aish HaTorah whilst self-described as an "apolitical international network of Jewish education centres", produces propaganda material for Israel.

One video they produce by Rabbi Ken Spiro titled "The Islamic Connection to Jerusalem" starts "The Islamic connection begins in the 7th century, thousands of years after the original Jewish connection.." and continues to belittle Jerusalem's Islamic heritage - propaganda to justify Israeli occupation of Jerusalem.
 http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Video_The_Islamic_Connection_to_Jerusalem.asp

Also featured on their site is "The Occupied Territories - A Primer" which denies the status of the West Bank and Gaza as "occupied" and argues that they be called "disputed territories".
 http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/middleeast/The_-Occupied_Territories-_A_Primer.asp

No wonder they were praised by the former Israeli Likud Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu:
"..I congratulate Aish HaTorah for what they're doing, where they're doing it, and for whom they're doing it."
 http://www.jerusalemfund.com/about/commendations.php

No, because there's room in any city for loads of restaurants, but not many coffee bars and caffs. They can easily overbuild to drive their competition out of business, then close down the excess. That's their strategy. It works.