The Starbucks lifestyle
DC
"EVERYTHING BUT THE COFFEE - Learning about America from Starbucks" by
Bryant Simon (Amazon.com: http://snurl.com/StarCof )
Temple University professor Bryant Simon believes he knows the
Starbucks secret. And it's not the caramel macchiato or the 86,999
other drinks the international coffee purveyors sell us. It's the
lifestyle we buy with that $3 cup of joe. Simon, 48, wanted to show
how Americans communicate with their purchases.
So, for his book "Everything But the Coffee: Learning about America
from Starbucks," he visited 435 Starbucks in the U.S. and 10 other
countries, analyzing everything from the flooring to the signage and
everyone from the customers to CEO Howard Schultz.
In the book, the UNC-Chapel Hill graduate explains how Starbucks
became a Wall Street favorite by making its customers feel
environmentally aware, upwardly mobile, connected and cool by
welcoming us, by name, into their clean, urban-chic stores, pumping
hip music, and selling us (some) fair-trade coffee in cups made of 60
percent recycled materials.
We got all that in one cup of coffee? At least the illusion of it, Simon says...
Continued: http://snurl.com/StarCof2
Tex
wrote:
It's been a decade since I went to a stockholders meeting, but
somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind is this tidbit: The cups used
are mostly recycled paper; but it's new recycled paper, so you're not
saving anything from ending up in landfills.
Tex - still a happy Starbuck's stockholder even if I don't buy their
stuff!
Jack Denver
Eww.
There are a lot of trimmings that are left over when paper cups are stamped
out, etc. If these were not recycled they would have to be landfilled so
even though they are not "post-consumer" waste it still benefits the
environment to recycle them.
"Tex" <Texas_...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:64c0d5d2-2c1a-4c6e...@34g2000yqp.googlegroups.com...
Tex
> Would you really want to drink out of a cup made from previously used paper?
> Eww.
>
> There are a lot of trimmings that are left over when paper cups are stamped
> out, etc. If these were not recycled they would have to be landfilled so
> even though they are not "post-consumer" waste it still benefits the
> environment to recycle them.
>
>
> news:64c0d5d2-2c1a-4c6e...@34g2000yqp.googlegroups.com...
>
> > Continued:http://snurl.com/StarCof2
>
> It's been a decade since I went to a stockholders meeting, but
> somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind is this tidbit: The cups used
> are mostly recycled paper; but it's new recycled paper, so you're not
> saving anything from ending up in landfills.
Hi Jack,
It might improve the taste of the coffee if they used a more aromatic
paper! ;-) I've been aware of the difference between post-production
and post-consumer recycling for decades. To my mind there's a huge
difference between the two, and there should be a distinction made on
the recycling labels.
Tex
Miles Bader
> It might improve the taste of the coffee if they used a more aromatic
> paper! ;-) I've been aware of the difference between post-production
> and post-consumer recycling for decades. To my mind there's a huge
> difference between the two, and there should be a distinction made on
> the recycling labels.
How common is it to use post-consumer recycled waste for food uses?
I wonder if the additional processing required to make it suitable for
that (non-toxic, no weird flavors, mechanically robust enough to hold
hot liquids well) might make it not so much of a win as you'd think.
Personally I prefer getting café coffee in a mug (it stays hot longer,
and just feels nicer), but many places like sbux seem to push paper
cups, I gather because they're trying to encourage people to leave once
they've bought something...
[anyone know how the environmental cost of washing a cup -- energy /
water / chemicals -- compares to producing a new paper cup...?]
-Miles
--
Omochiroi!
sam aranin
OH for shit sakes -- all the cups are lined with plastic or other, you
aren't drinking the paper.
"dim recesses of my mind" indeed! LOL!
Miles Bader
> OH for shit sakes -- all the cups are lined with plastic or other, you
> aren't drinking the paper.
Well you do come into "oral contact" with the paper while drinking
though; so toxic or nasty-tasting paper wouldn't be so nice...!
-Miles
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