Monday, February 26, 2007

Stop and Smell the Coffee

So, as I have long suspected, Starbuck's Chairman, Howard Schultz, is, in fact, a liberal's liberal. Who knew! How so, you say? Well, in articles in the WSJ (here), Starbuck's Chairman seems to lament the fact that the company has gotten away from its core. One patron laments that the stores are now "sterile" and "cookie-cutter." This is great! Schultz laments: "stores no longer have the soul of the past." What was that soul? Well, it was, as Schultz says: "romance and theater" and the fact that the baristas would make espresso by hand. In order to survive in the free-market they had to keep the supply up with the demand. Naturally that meant automation and drive-thru windows. This took away from Starbuck's "soul" it is claimed and now the Left is letting them hear about it. No wonder the tribute to Franz Kafka I saw at one store was fitting.

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