July 2nd, 2008
Now I know we're in a recession
OK, this has nothing to do with Ed Tech. Not a thing. There’s no tie-in, no hidden message for us Ed Techers, just a feeling of impending doom. Fortune is reporting that Starbucks is closing 600 stores.
I’ll let that sink in.
I’m from Seattle and I’m old enough to remember when Starbucks exploded, taking the Seattle coffee scene mainstream. Starbucks was never my favorite coffeeshop, although I won’t pass up a venti iced Americano with an extra shot. During my high school years, I tended to frequent little holes in the wall with lots of books, too much smoke, and heavily-pierced baristas. However, as the Fortune article points out,
The Seattle coffee chain has been feeling the pinch of a tightening economy. In February, the company fired 600 employees and conducted a in-store retraining program to try and revive the Starbuck Experience, as CEO Howard Schultz has called it…“The current economic environment is the weakest in our company’s history, marked by lower home values, and rising costs for energy, food and other products that are directly impacting our customers,” Shultz said.
When the economy starts to hurt Starbucks, I know we’re in trouble. Fortunately, Dean’s Beans is still going strong, so there is some hope. For those of you who don’t know, Dean’s Beans started the fair trade movement in coffee and makes a variety of fair trade and organic roasts that put Starbucks to shame (both in terms of taste and corporate policy).
No wait! There is an Ed Tech tie-in! Most of us are massively sleep deprived…if the local Starbucks closes, what are we to do? As my Dean’s Beans bumper sticker tells the world, “Make your own damn coffee!”
Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
Subscribe to ZDNet Education via Email alerts or RSS.
