09.29.2010 06:49 AM

Little boy to his Dad in Starbucks, just now

“I never sneeze on weekends, Daddy. Did you know that?”

8 Comments

  1. Namesake says:

    Actually, if he’s not too little to go to school or daycare, that could be a sign of an enviromental allergy (anything from chalk to mould to perfume)

  2. Cam McLeod says:

    Lots of Rocco news on this website in the last couple days. I’m sure that’s a positive sign.

  3. Curtis in Calgary says:

    Starbucks? The McDonalds of coffee? Shouldn’t we all support local beaneries or at least Canadian chains? Vote daily with your dollars. Support local, regional or national companies whenever and wherever possible. That way, profits, however slim, remain in our communities.

    • Kevin says:

      Starbucks is one of the best corporate citizens around. They are always very active in their communities. I do some work with a small charity working in the field of adult and family literacy, and Starbucks encourages their staff to volunteer with us. For every hour one of their employees volunteers, Starbucks donates $10.00 to us. They also participate in our major annual fundraiser by challenging each of their stores in the region to form teams and compete against each other to see how much they can raise in pledges. We have seen years where we’ve had 14, 16, 18 teams from Starbucks alone.

      Starbucks is just fine by me.

      • Curtis in Calgary says:

        I’m not slagging Starbucks per se. Many corporate entities support charities as a complementary form of brand marketing but the essence of my comment is supporting local businesses. For what it’s worth, the average local business spends a greater percentage of the bottom line to charities than large corporations. These large corporations simply have the means to get disproportionate credit for their charity work than smaller and local or regional companies.

        Supporting local and regional businesses is voting with our dollars in our own self interest on a daily basis. As stated above, “profits, however slim, remain in our communities.” Profits made by big box stores and international chains LEAVE our local markets. On average, 60%+ of profits in a local or regional business stays in that local or regional market supporting local and regional advertisers, accountants, lawyers, designers, sub-contractors et cetera. It’s the ripple effect that enhances our markets and not distant ones.

        Using a larger example of this ripple effect, when MacMillan Bloedel was purchased by Weyerhaeuser in 1999, Canadian jobs were retained in production but management and administrative high-value head office jobs in Vancouver were lost. Also lost were the ripple effect professional jobs in legal, accounting, graphic design, advertising, marketing et cetera.

        • Namesake says:

          “On average, 60%+ of profits in a local or regional business stays in that local or regional market…”

          and that’s nothing to sneeze at!

          • Curtis in Calgary says:

            Absolutely. It’s roughly double that which stays in the local market when spent at a large national or international chain.

Leave a Reply to Warren Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.