Starbucks

[RogerS]

+1 I've always said that. If a town or village doesn't want a McD or a Tesco or whatever , let them open - they'll be closed in 12 or 18 months if it's the will of the majority not to use them.

It's not as simple as that. Yes, people will go and shop in Tesco's but people are also lazy. So rather than buy some stuff at Tesco's and maybe the fruit and veg at the local greengrocer they will buy everything from Tesco's. Then once the local greengrocer has shut up shop and yet another empty shop appears in the High Street Tesco's are free to stick up their prices.

Most people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. They have no concept of quality or value for money. As long as it's cheap.

Our local greengrocer closed due to the large Waitrose opening up. The greengrocer had fresh almonds brought to him in summer by ex-residents now living in Spain. Fresh raspberries from the local fields. That actually tasted of something. Now all that's left are unripe apples that come from Argentina in Tesco's. Lots of airmiles there...really good for the planet.

Service is another thing. The local shops go out of their way to try and get you what you want. Waitrose or Tesco's buyers don't give diddly-squat whether or not you like a particular brand over another one. If that brand isn't selling ('cos people don't know quality...they only know cheap) then the buyers will ditch it. More cr*p on the shelves and a more impoverished life for those who actually have some selective criteria.

We then segue on to 'Free-from'. A hard call for those, like my wife, who are coeliac. We used to get an excellent range of 'free-from' stuff from the local healthfood shop. It disappeared from the shelves and we asked why. The company that supplied her were now supplying Waitrose...only Waitrose's criteria for 'free-from' was a bit more, shall we say, liberal in its interpretation. So what was genuinely 'free-from' got adulterated to the point that the healthfood shop felt that they could no longer sell it.

Don;t get me wrong. The local shops do need to up their act as quite a few we've tried locally have had poor quality fruit and more expensive.....much more expensive than Waitrose. We will pay for quality but not for tat.

 

[mind_the_goat]

It is a shame more people don't care enough to operate personal boycotts. When governments are incapable or just unwilling to close these tax loopholes then direct action is an appropriate and potentially effective way to give the perpetrators a message. if many people stopped stopped buying coffee at Starbucks do we really think there will be loss of VAT revenue and job losses? Spend your money at Costa instead, their profits will rise and so will their VAT payments, corporation tax and employment.
Anything you buy from Amazon can be obtained elsewhere, often cheaper
There are alternatives to Boots
Ebay....okay, I still use ebay, but try to pay cash, and there always Gumtree
There are even still a few a Building Societies for those of us who haven't forgiven the banks yet.

Alternatively if you are happy to pay the maximum amount of any price you pay to shareholders, then crack on.

 

[DiscoStu]

I don't blame Starbucks if they have legally avoided tax. It's down to HMRC and the government to ensure that they can't avoid it. When the tax news broke I had a few weeks of mild fun. Whenever I ordered a Starbucks (not unusual) and they would ask what name I gave up with my usual practice of making up names and said my name was tax payer. I'm not sure the guys were too impressed! Made me smile though. I'm now back to making up names.

 

[mind_the_goat]

You can bet if our govt. comes close to sorting it out, the e.u. will tell it it's not allowed to.

Except our Government has been trying to block new EU taxes and regulations on banks and may have been using smoke and mirrors to give the EU the impression they cared about tightening up on Tax Havens: http://www.theguardian.com/politics...-cayman-islands-david-maclean-lord-blencathra

 

[mind_the_goat]

I don't blame Starbucks if they have legally avoided tax. It's down to HMRC and the government to ensure that they can't avoid it

Well, they have a choice, some companies choose not do this.
it SHOULD be down to HMRC to so something, but they haven't, there is something I can do, and that's to stop giving them my money.