Why I Am Boycotting Starbucks

Starbucks CEO Harold Schultz is getting a lot of positive press in the past few weeks for his Upward Spiral campaign. In it, he pledges to withhold campaign contributions until our elected officials can work together to fix this country, and he encourages others to join him. (AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, my former boss's boss's boss, and J. Crew Chairman and CEO Millard Drexler have joined in the pledge.)

Last month, however, Mr. Schultz was in the midst of some negative publicity. He was scheduled to speak at the Willowcreek Leadership Summit, but an organization threatened to boycott Starbucks if he fulfilled his contractual obligation, so he backed out of the Summit.

As a Summit attendee, I was kind of shocked by the whole thing. Why someone would boycott a company because their CEO spoke at a leadership summit was beyond me. But after hearing the story, I was kind of disgusted with Starbucks. The boycott petition had fewer than 800 signatures on it, yet he still caved.

I instantly felt like I couldn't support a company who's CEO is so wishy-washy, no matter how wonderful its lattes. Bill Hybles, of Willowcreek Church, encouraged summit attendees to still support Schultz, to buy his book Onward, and to buy a cup of coffee. But I just can't do that. And I was a serious Starbucks devotee before this.

That afternoon at the Summit, we were also shown a World Vision video detailing how many people in the world subsist on $2 or less a day. Contrast that with my $5 daily latte habit and the whole thing seemed evident. I have not bought a cup of Starbucks since. If Starbucks begins to pledge $2 of every latte sold to World Vision or some similar organization, I will end my boycott.

Of course, when it comes to meeting friends for a cup of coffee it seems at times that Starbucks is the only game in town. I've had to explain on multiple occasions that I won't go to Starbucks and try to scramble to come up with another meeting spot.

I'm not suggesting everyone boycott Starbucks. But it would be nice for people to suggest other places to meet up ;) It would be extra nice if someone opened another coffee shop in my town (hint, hint coffebuzz).