I confess. I have an addiction. I love coffee, especially Starbucks coffee. I feel guilty spending so much money on it. I rarely buy the drinks in the coffee shops (unless I'm meeting friends). But I buy it by the pound for my morning coffee maker at home. I carry it with me backpacking and everywhere I travel. So, I was pleased to learn that Starbucks is teaming up with my hero, Bono, on
a new initiative to combat AIDs in Africa.
"Here we are, talking about the economy tanking. People are saying, 'Maybe the world doesn't need more coffee houses.' And what do you do? What does Starbucks do? You decide to give your money away," said Bono to his star-struck audience. "This is not charity. This is commerce."
In a press statement, Starbucks discussed the new initiative as framing "our commitment to doing business responsibly, our ability to use our scale as a catalyst of doing good, for our framers, our customers, our planet at large."
"If every single Starbucks customer bought one (RED) Holiday Exclusive (beverage) for a week, we would save 15,000 lives for a year in Africa," said Starbucks Senior Vice President Michelle Gass.
The world would probably be an even better place if I just quit drinking coffee and gave the money to charity. But since that isn't likely to happen soon, I'm at least encouraged that Starbucks is committed to doing good. It's a step in the right direction
I confess. I have an addiction. I love coffee, especially Starbucks coffee. I feel guilty spending so much money on it. I rarely buy the drinks in the coffee shops (unless I'm meeting friends). But I buy it by the pound for my morning coffee maker at home. I carry it with me backpacking and everywhere I travel. So, I was pleased to learn that Starbucks is teaming up with my hero, Bono, on a new initiative to combat AIDs in Africa. 
2 comments:
on a local level, i have taken to frequenting the Lawndale Starbucks, which has been tagged as one they will close.
For a while, I thought of Starbucks as the 8th seal/sign of the anti-Christ.
But really -- it's been pretty responsible in many ways. They pay their workers a good wage & benefits, and "spread the wealth" by buying at good prices form overseas farmers.
Through Magic Johnson, they opened up several stores to boost neighborhoods.
Though i am not-so-enthralled with some of Starbucks' clientle, and will often shop somewhere cheaper for a cup of coffee, I don't feel bad about buying from Starbucks on ocassion)
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