Politics The Starbucks Effect
A good book came out this spring called The Wal-Mart Effect.
It’s reminiscent of Fast Food Nation in that the author, a thorough, former Washington Post reporter named Charles Fishman, digs down into the “Wal-Mart ecosystem” for lenghty anecodtes about the manufacture and sale of everything from lawnmowers to pickles to bikes to power tools to bacon cookers to boys’ shirts to salmon (Wal-Mart is the #1 purchaser of Salmon in the U.S. and buys 1/3 of the annual salmon that Chile—the #1 salmon harvester in the world—sells to the U.S.). Fishman uses his reporting to explain exacty how the $11 billion in profits retail chain impacts the economic food chain. It’s a fascinating peek behind the curtain el capitalismo.
What makes the book much better (more challenging) than the entertaining Fast Food Nation, though, is this: Rather than being a heavy-handed and predictable takedown of Wal-Mart, the book provides data and details that both praise Wal-Mart (lowers the overall rate of grocery inflation in the U.S. by 15 percent, cuts out wasteful packaging to the benefit of the envrionment, and yes, actually does create more jobs per county than it displaces when it moves to town) and condemn Wal-Mart (forces U.S. manufacturers to layoff U.S. workers and rely on exploitative and inhumane labor practices overseas, forces a downgrade in quality on manufacturers so that consumers are buying less durable goods, oh, and those new jobs, don’t pay as well as the jobs they displace.)
Anyway, I’ve still got one chapter to go, so I’m not sure what Fishman’s conclusion is. However, the book has been so even-handed and unopinionated to this point that I don’t expect him to break out a 10th-grade rant now.
Indeed, so far there have really been only 3 times when Fishman openly editorializes. And it’s not about Wal-Mart. In Fishman’s stoically, even-keeled book, he tells you exactly how he feels about 3 other U.S. compnaies. Southwest Airlines…and then…two Seattle companies: Amazon.com and Starbucks.
He loves Southwest Airlines (“Southwest staff members are not just cheerful, they are well-paid. The airline’s business model, the low prices they offer customers, doesn’t require our silent complicity in exploiting the very people who are taking care of us. There is no hidden universe of squeezed suppliers.)
Amazon and Starbucks, however, don’t rate so well. First, in a weird, off-hand, snipe, Fishman blisters Amazon.com: “As you can imagine, that process lags behind the real marketplace—the federal bureaucracy moves more slowly than Amazon.com.”
And—after saying that “the average product we buy from Wal-Mart costs less than $3”—Fishman bust Starbucks: “Starbucks is built on a customer philosophy exactly opposite to Wal-Mart’s, charging more for a cup of coffee than anyone would have imagined 20 years ago. The price of half the drinks on the Starbucks menu board is more than $3. A desire for indulgence has created the world’s most popular cafe.”
Anyway, it’s kinda weird that in a book—arguably about the most provocative company in the world—the two companies Fishman apparently finds irksome—irksome enough to break out of his objective tone for a half second—are our very own Starbucks and Amazon.
I can't believe I'm reading this, I read this book and thought almost exactly the same thing.
But his critiques of Amazon and Starbucks pissed me off. It's easy to bash Starbucks for being cheesy and marketed to people who'd rather burn their money than spend it wisely, but even though they can be pretty cutthroat about the placement of their stores, they exploded cafe culture in this country, they didn't displace it. Also, though they hardly pay a living wage, at least they're paying their part time employees health insurance (while the rest of us foot the bill for the insurance wal mart doesn't pay its employees).
And finally, it's about time that gay kids in Ritzville have a place to work that (at least in writing) protects them from harrassment because of their sexual orientation.
And regarding Amazon, his main critique is that it's "too innovative". Fuck him.
I do love southwest airlines tho.