In defence of… Starbucks – Spectator Blogs

It does seem odd that Starbucks can have so many coffee shops in the United Kingdom and yet fail to make any profit from them. I am no expert in these matters but assume Starbucks is merely acting rationally and, in fact, legally. If politicians don’t like this kind of caper they might consider simplifying the tax code. Even for multinationals such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google.

Anyway, all this has people harshing on Starbucks. Again. The coffee chain is a victim of its own ubiquity. Which is just another way of saying that it’s suffering for its successes.

It’s fashionable these days to deride Starbucks as just another faceless mega-chain, sucking the life from British high streets that, in their absence, would be bustling, charming havens of localist shoppers shopping at their locally-owned local store. Well, perhaps but I think it pretty unlikely.

The dark little secret is that most of the coffee consumed in this country would scarcely be considered coffee at all in other parts of europe.