business

Tom Mullaney in the Chicago Tribune, examines the fact that Starbucks is closing 600 stores and concludes that it is because it has lost its way from an authentic Italian coffee house (as late as 1988), to eventually become a proto fast food chain.

For a long time, Starbucks has effectively been a store selling coffee flavored deserts. A Venti Chocolate Malt Frappuccino with whipped cream, at 760 calories is equivalent to a BigMac AND Fries.

Despite the best intentions of a CEO inspired by a trip to Milan, a Starbucks Latte is a type and size of milk laden drink that is hardly ever drunk in Italy. By combining fat, sugar and caffeine into a beverage that is part of the cultural ritual of an American morning, they had merged the cravings satisfied by both fast food and soda into a liquid package that therefore seemingly didn’t count as calories, and created a business that would naturally become most profitable as fast food in disguise, due to customer demand rather than corporate conspiracy.

In New York, where foot traffic is high, the main ingredient of Starbucks reveals itself by the sickly smell of accumulated fatty milk spills, rather than fresh coffee grounds.

But the reason why Starbucks is shedding premises and staff is simple: a $5 coffee is an easily dispensable luxury in a recession, period.

With a share price that is, incredibly, at its lowest point since 1955, GM is worth around $6B, while Toyota is worth around $150B. The DOW is the same as in January 2000.

Many of the product press releases I’m emailed claim a ‘green’ angle which is often false. Today’s is for a July 4th Room and Board special, focusing on American made goods:

“As the 4th of July approaches, we thought it’d be a good time to remind you that more than 85 percent of Room & Board furniture is sourced and manufactured right here in the United States. Room & Board is thinking American-made for America’s birthday!”

“This means a smaller environmental impact as these pieces are shipped entirely within the boundaries of the U.S. Room & Board is committed to sustainability and this means high-quality construction, timeless design and the commitment to American-made as it stimulates local economies and helps to keep our suppliers in business and doing what they do best.”

This does make sense from a local perspective, but it is false to claim it to be ecologically sound. Aside from the fact that an American worker has a much higher carbon footprint that almost any other, and US manufacturing growth (rather than services growth) therefore usually has a negative global impact, there is a bigger problem. Transferring goods by land across the US has a higher energy cost than transferring by sea from Europe. If you live in New York, transportation costs mean it is more ‘green’ to by French wine than Californian. This is counterintuitive and uncomfortable, but its the truth.

Being green is fashionable these days, and unlike in the past, its profitable, so it isn’t merely an act of charity. But if you claim something is green that isn’t, you are benefiting as a result of the environment suffering.

The leftwing Huffington Post is now the world’s most authoritative blog, according to Technorati.

In the election runup, although publicly known, I wonder how many people realize that the Huffington Post is named after a power obsessed, failed Democrat who was actually a former Republican extremist .

The ‘Huffpo’ has a proprietor who once campaigned as a Republican to the religious right for the dismantlement of welfare because “big government cheats people out of the spiritual rewards of giving to the needy”; who made her fortune from a divorce settlement after marrying a man she knew was gay; who was a follower and financial supporter of a strange religious cult and who paid less than a thousand dollars in tax in a year she campaigned as a Democrat against ‘fat cat’ tax avoiders, while living in an ostentatiously kitsch 6,000 sq. ft. LA mansion.

(I have just finished updating her Wikipedia entry, should you want details)

Arianna Huffington’s political vacillation is statistically unlikely. To paraphrase Wilde, given that it has tended to be in her personal interest – it looks like carelessness.

It is ironic and sad that in an election year, the Left’s most prominent outlet in the Blogosphere is a site run by someone who represents exactly the same cynicism as the media outlet it rails against – Fox News.

The Guardian today has a good article on why Origins.net’s latest genealogical database is a particular gem, putting online a particularly rich set of English wills from 1470 to 1856. The wills show just what people left to each other, hundreds of years ago, including a Mrs Adowne who was fulfilled when her dying tenant, Robert Sherlocke, granted her “all the soil and dung that I have”.

Article here.

The wills can be accessed by subscription, here.