would you consider starbucks a proactive company?!

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Proactive in what regard? Ecologically? Environmentally? Financially? Managerially? Politically? Socially?

Help.

UPDATE: In ANY of them? Lordy, is this a school paper, or something? You need better focus.

Anyway, this is all culled only from what I've heard/read over a long period of time, colored with my personal bias.

Starbucks likes to think it's a proactive company when it comes to most of those things. They use unbleached paper for their cups/sleeves (I think--or that sort of thing, anyway) (environmental); they use...shoot, what's the term for coffee beans grown only under fabulous circumstances and the farmer paid a fair price...you'll have to look that up, I'm falling asleep. Anyway, they buy and sell this FAIR TRADE -- that's it! -- coffee. That's social proactiveness.

Hm, they make more claims to being a great, proactive company. I'm burning out here, tonight, can't think of them.

BUT...you knew that was coming, right? They also have had a plan to expand just about everywhere they can, worldwide. They're building new buildings where others might be used instead. Their construction and, of course, their business consumes resources that are becoming more precious, such as, yes, water. I don't know how they treat their employees, really; sometimes I get the impression they're really great in that area, sometimes I get the impression they're getting something of a Wal-Mart type reputation for being stingy.

BUT...you didn't know that was coming, right? I don't think they're significantly different from any other company, in these ways. The whole point of a capitalist system is to encourage business, and business has to make money. To do so, you have to consume resources, etc. And just about EVERY business, these days, is advertising itself as "green" and "socially conscious" and blah-blah-blah. Sometimes I think Starbucks is doing a lot of this, and it makes me wonder what's really going on there, but again, there's no evidence, as far as I know, that they are much better or any worse than anybody else.

Whew. Definitely a long day for me. G'night!