因為營收不善的關係，星巴克上個月月初宣布要關閉美國境內5%，約等於600家分店，今天再確定將裁員1000名非店面的員工，並調動管理階層的人事，連澳洲的星巴克都要收掉73%的店面。

　在美國，星巴克跟台灣很像，是中產階級的消費象徵。社區裡有星巴克，幾乎等於這個社區脫離一級貧民窟。

　也難怪有人對家附近的星巴克要收攤感到難過──誰會希望自己住的區域從中產階級再變回貧窮一族？

　因為不是星巴克迷（我不是喝醫學大樓裡的Tully’s就是學校附近的Café on the Ave或是Bulldog News），所以新聞看過就算了，頂多瞄一下學校這一帶的星巴克有沒有在名單上。倒是沒想到，有認識的人受到影響。

　Capital Hill一個51歲的阿姨最近為了自己常去的星巴克要結束營業，在店門口發起連署，打算在這星期三向CEO Schultz請願，短短兩天就收集1000個簽名，有人甚至附上去年在這家店一整年買咖啡的收據，合計6800美金（這老先生是把咖啡當水喝是吧？！）。昨天這事上了報，今天早上的廣播call-in也跟著討論該不該為一家連鎖咖啡店分店的存亡辦這種活動。

　中間不過一天，call-in進行時簽名已經累積到1700個。如果這1700個人全是這間分店的常客，它還會關門嗎？

　「那也是我的星巴克！我也要去簽名！」酒神老先生說。

　我有些訝異，「你不是只喝Javasti的咖啡嗎？」

　據老先生說，他和蘇姨同居之前住在那一帶，當時常常去；後來搬到西雅圖北邊，因為蘇姨看病的醫院就在附近，他總是在送蘇姨復診時，跑回那家分店喝咖啡吃點心。

　「所以妳知道問題有多嚴重了吧！以後我就沒有星巴克可去了，最近的另外一家星巴克在超商裡面，沒有設桌椅，站著喝咖啡是多麼沒有情趣的事！如果關的是這間我才服氣！」

　義裔美國人跟他們的祖先一樣很講究氣氛的……

　「附近難道沒有別的咖啡店了嗎？」

　「當然有！可是要走很久！妳也知道我很懶……」

　好吧！你能冀望一個連從一樓到二樓都要坐電梯的老男人能有多勤快呢？

　「這個決定還蠻合理的啊！逛完超市買杯咖啡喝，人氣怎麼想都比要關的這家旺。」

　因為我一副事不關己的樣子，老先生抗議：「妳太沒同理心了！這家星巴克對很多人來說是很重要的！等妳的星巴克關門妳就知道那是多可怕的一件事！」

　「不過就是沒椅子坐或是得多走一段路嘛！幹嘛想得跟天要塌一樣……」我暗暗覺得好笑，「反正我的星巴克沒有要關啊！」

　「妳的星巴克在哪裡？」

　我笑了笑，「在台北。」

　這大概是整件事最弔詭的地方了。沒出國前，我常在日常生活動線中點的一家星巴克喝咖啡歇歇腿，或是把剛買的書拿出來看，或是跟住在城市各角落的好友同學聊天；可一到西雅圖，星巴克的發源地，我反而不喝星巴克了。

　也許真的是我對那個遠在台北一角的星巴克情有獨鍾吧！

相關連結：

Full list of U.S. store closures

Starbucks plans to close 600 stores across U.S.

19 Starbucks in state to close as full list of 600 is revealed

Starbucks closes 61 stores in Australia

Starbucks cuts 1,000 jobs

What do you make of the reaction to the Starbucks closings?

Why don't we feel Starbucks' pain?

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/372445_starbucks28.html

Locals try to keep the coffee flowing at doomed Starbucks 

Last updated July 27, 2008 11:11 p.m. PT

By ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTER

Never before an activist, Loretta Donnelly has found her cause.

"Sign the petition to keep this Starbucks open," the Capitol Hill retiree called out Friday morning to two men walking by.

"Are they going to close it?" one asked, not stopping.

"Not if I can help it!" she said as they disappeared around the corner.

For about 13 hours a day last week, she collected signatures outside the Starbucks on 15th Avenue East. She has about 1,000 names so far.

On Wednesday, she said, a local TV station's cameramen will escort her, 40-plus-page petition in hand, to Starbucks' headquarters in Sodo.

Said Donnelly, 51: "I'm a concerned citizen. Call me nuts, but I am."

She's not the only one trying to influence the coffee giant. After Starbucks published the locations of 616 stores slated for closure, customers around the nation created petitions, phoned the Seattle coffee chain and sent letters to Chief Executive Howard Schultz.

Bill Woertendyke, 59, asked Schultz to keep the Capitol Hill location open. He attached to the letter a Quicken printout of his last year's coffee purchases totaling more than $6,800. (An occasional purchase was from Tully's, a competitor.)

A national Web site dedicated to the effort, SaveOurStarbucks.com, is run by customers and tells people how to voice their displeasure. It also links to various petitions.

Comedy Central personality Stephen Colbert mocked the effort on his show last week.

"This is the kind of grassroots activism I like, the kind that helps sprawling corporate behemoths," Colbert said. "And to think, I was about to sign this petition to end the violence in Darfur. What was I thinking? They don't make Frappucinos."

To others, the closings are serious. Before Starbucks released its hit list, bloggers and reporters across the country anticipated the closings as if they were U.S. military base closures, speculating and collecting information tidbits from baristas.

While local television affiliates broadcast the question, "Will we lose our Starbucks?" others mourned the loss of clean public restrooms.

In many neighborhoods and towns, Starbucks means status, a green-logo stamp of validity. Thus, losing a Starbucks can be symbolic, a sign that a neighborhood is on the way down.

"People are taking the Starbucks closings hard for the same reason they're taking the Anheuser-Busch sale to the Miserable Fat Belgian Bastards: because Starbucks is an iconic brand that means something more than just a company," wrote Rod Dreher, an opinion columnist for The Dallas Morning News.

"It's become a sign of middle-class American modishness. To get a Starbucks in your neighborhood meant that you were validated. ... It's a status thing."

The Dallas area is losing 28 stores. Dreher told the P-I that people in the Dallas mayor's office were upset to learn that many of the closings were in the southern area of the city.

"It sends a bad business signal," Dreher said. "When Starbucks goes, it's more than just a coffee shop closing. It's a sign that the yuppies are in retreat."

Similar stories are told across the nation. On July 11, a New Milford (Conn.) Times headline inquired, "Would they close our Starbucks?"

After learning that a Starbucks in downtown Jackson, Tenn., would close, the Jackson Sun reported: "The arrival of the Seattle-based coffee company to Downtown Jackson was heralded by many Jacksonians. The hope was that a brand-name store with a nationally recognized seal might help downtown growth."

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that having a Starbucks in town helped draw other big-name businesses to Covington, a town losing a store. That article also quoted an official in Marion, Ark., who said that losing a Starbucks makes it more difficult to recruit other retailers.

Another paper, the Schenectady (N.Y.) Daily Gazette, reported, "The city's first Starbucks apparently will also be its last."

Summarizing the view of many localities, a New York Times report carried the headline, "To Starbucks, a closing; To Newark, a trauma."

After 25 years of rapid growth, Starbucks is used to battling with those who don't want a cafe around. But this outpouring is new territory.

Starbucks' official line is that it is humbled and working on how to respond. But the company has cautioned that the closures, which affect 12,000 employees, are an economic necessity.

One loyal Seattle customer unknowingly touched on the irony of the situation last Friday. A patient at nearby Group Health, Joe Petrosky stopped to sign Donnelly's petition.

"I grew up in a small town, and I've been around a lot," said Petrosky, 53. "When you start closing things and removing the small-town feel because of money, it hurts the local people."

Irony is when the presence of a multinational corporation preserves the small-town feel. Or it's good branding – if anything can be concluded, it's that Starbucks has successfully marketed itself to a lot of people.

"It's more like a home away from home," said Jeremiah Moore, 21, a Seattle customer.

Another customer said Starbucks rescued him from being a loner.

"I met a lot of great people here," Thomas Harwood, 58, said. "We can't just sit in our apartments looking at the walls. The coffee's good, and the employees are great. I'd love to meet Howard Schultz."

He lingered near the petition table, conceding, "We're all nuts."

© 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer