Also, I shamelessly stole the gist of the above from a movie clip I saw on the Daily Show.

Where I used to live the council decided to bring in funds by introducing parking charges in the town centre, partially to recoup the money from a horrible library refit. They turned it into a “Discovery Centre”, meaning they put in an art installation that broke down on a weekly basis, increased the amount of computers, shifted the local reference section in to what was the museum and move a tiny fraction of the museum exhibits into the main library building. Increasing the amount of books or replacing the old ones was not in the plan.

Anyway, I digress. I’m still bitter about that, but back on subject. The additional revenue from the parking charges did not come close to the money they lost from reduced market stalls. Eventually they saw the light and scrapped the charges, but it was too late. Most of the stall holders that had left had already found new places to fill the holes in their schedules and the market was all but dead.

Now I live in a place where the managers of the shopping centres are doing exactly the thing you described. They’re increasing prices and killing off small businesses then finding that they need to charge more for shops and more for parking in order to make the lost earnings back.

Meanwhile one of the larger shopping centres, which is currently half empty, gained permission to acquire and demolish a cheaper retail site next door and expand the gluttonous monstrosity that is their main centre.

I’ve seen the same in other places, replacing terraces of small shops with overblown shopping centres, killing of the speciality businesses, when they can’t fully rent out the one down the street. It’s a farce and not a funny one either.

What shits me is when you go to a really sauve looking joint, art hanging on the walls, nice looking snacks on the counter displays and the coffee taste like shit.
Where I lived in Perth, there was this great looking cafe open up in the Beaufort st cafe strip, it had art for sale on the walls, great snacks, great music, great lounges and shit coffee. I think is called Exodus, maybe ppl were leaving because of the coffee?

Could you explain the sizes for me? Anyone?

I saw a video a while back that included the line (delivered to a Starbuck’s barrista) “Why don’t you take a venti razor and shove it up your ass, you tall brained moron!” I laughed for an hour, as much at the stupid names as anything else.

There’s a really great little history of Starbucks in the book Uncommon Grounds, a history of coffee. There’s some really interesting history there, from humble, honourable beginnings, to some in-fighting and a coup, followed by money-grubbing and business practice changes, leading to the mega-corporation of today.

Congratulations… and thank you.

I think they are hoping that our complete lack of sophistication means we’ll drink there… they’re probably right to some extent. Our corner of the UK is renowned for being 20 years behind the rest of the civilized world.

I actually thought about you whilst typing the post, being our resident expert on all things realted to the bean.

I think I’m going to start drinking tea from now on.

My town is dying, rapidly. In an eager and greedy bid to attract more money, the council sacrificed local businesses for the sake of international brands… They hiked the rents up for shops in town, forcing all the smaller business out and leaving us with a city centre half-populated by empty stores. The ones that remain are international brands such as the coffee giants. And that’s fine, but sometimes I want to buy something that isn’t coffee.

They raised rent because their revenue had dropped because they had forced small businesses out, it seems this cycle is going to continue.

The best bit is that they have given permission for a massive shopping development to ‘provide more retail space’ despite the fact that half the town is empty. It just seems like another desperate attempt to lure a stable, but ultimately pointless, set of shops to the area.

Our council is corrupt or inept, I still can’t decide, perhaps both… they refuse to listen to the citizens of their own town and are in it for all they can take, reagardless of their political orientation.

If any of you councilors read this, by the way, I stand by that… why not take me to court for slander, that should be fun? A nice open debate, for once, about your motives? Accounts on the table? Links with businesses, conflicts of interest?

Sorry, Ben, this sort of thing gets me quite worked up. I love my home town, it is as much a part of me as anything else, and yet there are these idiots in charge who are trying to choke it to death.

“Coffee flavoured milkshakes” was a phrase which arose frequently.

“We have one of the largest populations of Italian migrants in the world. Family-owned cafes and decades-old barista traditions saturate every major capital city. Even petrol stations have espresso machines. We all drink real coffee. Why the fuck would any Australian who liked coffee set foot inside a Starbucks?” was another.

Good riddance, Starbucks. Go and peddle your boiled dishwater elsewhere.