Last week on my radio program I offered my personal opinion that Seattle’s Best Coffee was better than Starbucks. The next day one of my nephews called  to inform me that Seattle’s Best is owned by Starbucks, ostensibly to make the point that I was comparing an apple with an apple. Just yesterday another one of my nephews emailed the same information, to which I replied that Starbucks has much to learn from Seattle’s Best, a company founded in 1968 and purchased by Starbuck’s parent company in 2003. It should be pointed out that the first nephew who called me actually works for Starbucks, but I am almost certain that has not influenced his opinion in the least.  :-0

Seattle’s Best was forced to sell to Starbucks in 2003 because of an accounting scandal in 2002 at it’s parent company, AFC Enterprises. The fact that Starbucks would buy Seattle’s Best tells you something about the competitive threat they felt from them. While the beans used by Starbucks and Seattle’s Best are now roasted in the same plant, they are not roasted in the same way, thus “Charbucks,” v. a real good tasting cup of coffee.

I first heard the term “Charbucks” when my daughter referred to Starbucks by that term a few years ago. It’s a moniker I am most certain is not original with her. A Google search of the term “Charbucks” reveals the source of the term:

George Howell, founder and owner of the Coffee Connection, regarded Starbucks as the antithesis to what he believed in. By 1994, the Coffee Connection had expanded to twenty-one retail outlets, and Starbucks was actively attempting to purchase the chain. Since George felt so strongly that Starbucks “over roasted” all of their coffee, he began to refer to Starbucks as “Charbucks” extensively.

The fact that Starbuck’s parent company owns Seattle’s Best Coffee does not negate the fact that Seattle’s Best Coffee is better tasting than Starbucks. There are still substantial differences in the operating philosphies of the two companies, as is demonstrated by not only the taste of the coffee, but the environment of the stores.

Walk into any Starbucks and the smell of over roasted coffee overwhelms you. One is also overwhelmed by the very liberal left causes Starbucks supports. Starbucks is an evangelist for environmentalism and human rights, yet for all the flak Wal-Mart Corporation has taken for supposedly mistreating its employees, a higher percentage of Wal-Mart employees have company paid health insurance (47%) than does Starbucks (42%).

I have never been in a Starbucks when I didn’t feel as if the people behind the counter felt superior to me in some way. Starbucks seems like it has something to prove, a message to proclaim, people to convert, which certainly feeds the uppity atmosphere.

The employees at Seattle’s Best have always treated me like one of them – just another human being. I don’t feel like any one is trying to convert me to their cause. I order my Carmel Mocha, I watch them make it, and I drink it in an intellectually stimulating environment (my local Borders) without feeling any pressure to become a liberal as a consequence of my patronizing them.

Starbucks may own Seattle’s Best, but they didn’t create Seattle’s Best, thus there is a vast difference between the two companies. There is also a subtle message in the Starbucks logo that may confirm my opinion. The Starbucks logo features a Siren (half-bird/half-woman). The founder of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, in his book Pour Your Heart into It : How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, describes the origins of the Starbucks logo:

Terry [Heckler] also poured over old marine books until he came up with a logo based on an old sixteenth-century Norse woodcut: a two-tailed mermaid, or siren, encircled by the store’s original name, Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice. That early siren, bare-breasted and Rubenesque, was supposed to be as seductive as coffee itself. [p. 33]

Sirens were in the business of seducing mariners with songs and promises of sex and then killing them. Starbucks may seduce you, but in the end their coffee may kill you!