Recent Stories with tag starbucks

TechFlash sees afterimages of Webvan in Amazon's new Tote delivery service, but I can't help thinking of the gold standard: Kozmo.com couriers delivering lunch half an hour after I ordered it. Tote won't be quite that fast, but from a cost perspective, Amazon has one-upped Kozmo: the twice-weekly Tote service is free, and there's no minimum spend. (You do have to complete your order two days before the next delivery date.)

If you order something from Amazon and you'd like them to deliver it the next time they're delivering in your neighborhood (the delivery days are zip code-specific), they'll truck it on over. The first zip to get Tote is 98112. The Tote bags are weather-resistant and reusable, and one way you can reuse them is to return items if there's any problem. Get the Tote FAQs here. (Perhaps you'd like to order a discounted Kindle? Even the Kindle DX has a lower price.)

Meanwhile, today inaugurates 1) a City of Seattle ordinance mandating that all single-use food service packaging at restaurants and grocery stores be either recyclable or compostable, and 2) a fully operational battlestar Starbucks recycling and composting program that incorporates front-of-store waste, too (i.e., there are more bins out front).

You've probably seen evidence of this, since Starbucks has been rolling out the new program at its 90 Seattle stores over the past month. The city's goal is to keep 6,000 tons of packaging and compostable waste out of landfills each year. Starbucks' goal is to get front-of-store recycling into all company-owned locations by 2015. (Their paper cups will head back to the plant for a second life as paper napkins.)...

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Hundreds of people gathered at Golden Gardens Park today and joined hands as part of national Hands Across the Sand Day, protesting offshore drilling.

Money worries: Shoreline Bank has received an FDIC warning about being "significantly undercapitalized" reports the PSBJ, who also noted the frenzy of trading Thursday of Cowlitz Bancorporation stock. Cowlitz is "critically undercapitalized," according to the FDIC, so it appears someone knows something about something. State revenue is still declining, and Governor Gregoire, facing a $3-billion deficit next year, is taking suggestions on what to do about it. King County still can't afford to take care of your pets, but they're not giving up on shelters...yet.

Arts and crafting furloughs: The Seattle Times had a good story on arts groups trying to survive the recession via paycuts and furloughs. Even SAM is closing down for two weeks next year, in addition to furloughing staff. It's becoming a guessing game as to what's open--we need a central furlough calendar. Seattle Public Library, for instance, is closing August 30 through September 6. Not everyone can throw a film poster sale like the Northwest Film Forum.

In the neighborhoods: CHS had the story on the Olive Way Starbucks' new beer & wine 'do. Sotheby's International Realty opened in Belltown. CD News raised the alarum (yes, real word) about the SPD planning to cut its crime prevention coordinators program. A fight broke out as City Council members toured the Ave in the U District. (Not among City Council members, sadly.) Nothing happened in Wallingford or Wedgwood....

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AUGH! Cliff Mass had us hoping for a sunny Sunday, but "new shit has come to light." His new Sunday forecast says to expect more clouds and rain by early Sunday afternoon.

On the bright side, all seven of our Seattle farmer's markets are in full swing this weekend.

A few local stories we didn't cover this week but which nonetheless happened: the author of Drugstore Cowboy was arrested for robbing a drugstore; a UW study found that HIV treatment dramatically reduced transmission rates; and failing Washington banks made the Wall Street Journal.

WSDOT announced the tunnel may take a year longer to complete than thought.

Our top two stories were about the Sonics fan fracas over on Starbucks' Facebook page and whether your grocery store makes you fat. Mayor McGinn had questions about the tunnel, and kept hammering away about cost overruns. Seattle made it on a Top 10 Cities list and hosted the world's largest 3D TV (from LG) at SID 2010 (photos!).

If all goes as planned, all major Puget Sound roadways will be tolled within the next 10 to 20 years, primarily to deal with congestion. Seattle is still arguing over in-city "road diets." The closure of the NE 45th Street Viaduct draws near (June 14). What's going on with the unsold condos at Thornton Place? The owner and their PR firm didn't respond to my calls, so not a lot, I'm thinking....

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Starbucks' Facebook fan page is the epicenter of Sonics fan protest this morning. It all starts rather innocently, with Starbucks announcing the "We love you Seattle" promotion. Every Friday through June 18, you can pick up a special gift at "local participating Seattle Starbucks."

A nice gesture, sure to engender smiles of gratitude from happy Seattleites, yes? Well, in the unlikely event that this blog post is optioned for a movie, the trailer might say: "But Starbucks forgot one thing..."

Sonics fans. Who have not forgotten that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz' spearheaded the team's sale to Oklahoma Cityites, the overwhelming factor precipitating the team's desertion of Seattle. Sonics fans are not feeling the love. To put it lightly. And they aren't being shy about it.

"f*** starbucks an howard shultz, c***sucker!!" comments one Kyle Mortensen on SBUX Facebook.

Thomas Kohnstamm is a little more coherent: "Thanks for the offer of a free coffee, but I'd rather have the basketball team that I grew up on."

The directors of Sonicsgate have even chimed in with a link to their Webby-award winning film about the team's departure....

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BNET is doing a series on ten "boom towns" across the nation where job growth is predicted to enter the double-digit range between 2008 and 2018. Jobs of the future, they say, will go "to the cities with the industries and the entrepreneurial incentives in place to support a highly educated, tech-savvy workforce."

Seattle makes that boom town list, with a 12 percent increase. We're "building on past successes":

For decades, it spawned companies that grew into job-creation machines--and stuck around the area with those jobs: Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Starbucks, Costco, Expediters International, and even retail stalwart Nordstrom, which opened its first store there at the beginning of the 20th century.

While not free of the scent of PR puffery, this is based partly on Bureau of Labor Statistics projections, with a side bet on demographic trends: right now, the largest two age groups are 50-year-olds and 20-year-olds. The hypothesis is that 50s set will come to Seattle for the pre-retirement lifestyle, while the 20-somethings will flock to the UW.

Before you yawn, and produce a thick volume of past "boom towns of the future" that are still anxiously awaiting the railroad to arrive, consider this rundown of quarterly results:

• Starbucks beat analysts' expectations
• Amazon's sales soared
• Microsoft set a revenue record
• Boeing's profit margins are up

And Nordstrom had strong March sales and Costco is increasing its cash dividend. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes Seattle seem like its own little business oasis. 

Seattle is the #2 big city for people with asthma, says Health magazine, thanks in part to our 2008 heat wave pollution, which meant the city had to work even harder to maintain clean air. And Bicycling magazine rated us the #4 best city for bicycling, after Minneapolis, Portland, and Boulder. That's thanks to our bike master plan.

Costco and Nordstrom had a good March, while Boeing reported almost an eleven percent drop in first quarter deliveries compared to last year. Starbucks was trying to get us drunk and show us a movie. Techflash reported on a UW study claiming 8.4 percent of Washington jobs rely on Microsoft. In Olympia, a sales tax increase didn't pass muster, but mass-market beer got tagged. The City Council may be near agreeing with Mayor McGinn for the first time.

Down in South Lake Union, Amazon started moving into its new digs. One Seattle real estate investor bought an infamous Orange County resort, while on top of Queen Anne, a developer put a substantial chunk of property up for sale. Over on Capitol Hill, a protest against police brutality got a little out of hand, and Sen. Patty Murray visited Cupcake Royale. In Ballard, a car accident claimed three young lives. My Wallingford was gearing up for work on the Aurora Bridge. As usual, nothing happened in Wedgwood....

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15th Ave Coffee & Tea has its own rain table.

I'm not too proud to admit I've been in 15th Ave Coffee & Tea a few times, drawn like a hapless mariner by the siren song of the Clover machine. But it wasn't until I read this Reuters story on Starbucks' experiment with "indie" stores in Seattle that I learned how good we really have it.

First of all, the wine and beer are Seattle options. You're not going to find that elsewhere. Why? Because we're adults, in Seattle. We can have nice things. The rest of the country--pfft. Scrubs. Also, Howard Schultz lives here. You know Howard, he likes a glass of wine now and then.

(Luckily, he can still afford the nice stuff. The New York Times reports:

Howard Schultz of Starbucks requested last year that his base salary be reduced from $1.19 million to $6,900 as "a personal contribution to cost-control efforts," according to a company statement. However, the company later gave him a $1 million "discretionary bonus" that nearly made up for his sacrifice.)

The alcohol is an interesting "experiment," because Starbucks tells Reuters: "We have no plans at this time to offer these beverages in other locations."

Secondly, we get movie night. I hadn't realized this, either. At Roy St. Coffee & Tea (not on Roy Street, so don't get lost) at the north end of Broadway, they've been showing independent films, with a preference for shorts. And they're participating in Capitol Hill's Blitz Art Walk this Thursday with a jazz/modern dance combo--speaking of things that won't play in Peoria. (The 15th location is also doing jazz CD release parties.)

I know that in some circles it is not permitted to admit that you go to Starbucks, let alone an appropriated-hipster Starbucks, but I have to say: Seattle, we're getting a pretty sweet deal with this experiment. Now, we're owed--a lot--because of the Sonics. But I blame the NBA more than Howard, and I'm willing to let him try to make amends.

The beer and wine and jazz and movies and fireworks are nice. Let's keep this ball rolling. If you have suggestions, I'll collect them and forward to Starbucks.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C. (All photos: Michael Austin)

While Cliff Mass explains why we just had our warmest January ever recorded, enjoy a picture of the blizzard that's blanketed Washington, D.C., courtesy of our D.C. bureau. The word is that it's bad...very bad.

Closer to home, West Seattle Blog found a local Prius tie-in to the Toyotathon Recall that's been in the news all week. However, Toyotas alone can't be responsible for the four crashes in 90 minutes that WSB reported on. This is precisely why I only take the water taxi over there. Safer.

We had politics all over the place this week. A Publicola investigation resulted in the resignation of one of Mayor McGinn's top advisors. The 520 replacement "A+" design got raked over the coals by citizen groups and various politicos, while Eastsiders and business-types cried "How long, O Lord, how long?" Judges told the state legislature to fork out for education, and the Seattle School Board to reconsider those "new math" textbooks. Our homegrown pot initiative got its official name: I-1068. Tim Eyman went down to Olympia, predictably....

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Compared to the news from Haiti, the local stories feel a little trivial. But it's been a week of being overtaken by events.

Symetra's IPO got off well, and Starbucks got some mojo back, but the stock market as a whole had a terrible week. (Why? Bank trouble in big China.) Amazon announced developers can start writing Kindle apps. Adobe made tangential news when YouTube started using a non-Flash HTML5 video player. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has learned how to do life-saving things with stem cells from umbilical cord blood. For some reason I didn't know that bankruptcy-filing Taco Del Mar was headquartered in West Seattle.

Seattle's 9.2 percent unemployment is bad, but less than Washington's overall 9.5 percent unemployment.

Seattle Bubble reports that the state's chief economist says if real estate will rebound, it won't be until 2011. Commercial real estate would take longer. Arun Raha also pointed out that the problem with losing our smaller regional and community banks is that they provide credit to small businesses--small businesses that we're counting on create new jobs. Regulators seized Seattle's Evergreen Bank ($482 million in assets) on Friday and sold it to Umpqua Bank in Oregon....

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