There was a petition at my local Starbucks the other morning about the government shutdown.
Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz said he was circulating the petitions to his customers because of the “sad and striking realization that the American people have no platform with which to voice their frustration and outrage over the shutdown.”
The Starbucks petition stated: “To our leaders in Washington, D.C., now’s the time to come together to: 1. Reopen our government to serve the people. 2. Pay our debts on time to avoid another financial crisis. 3. Pass a bipartisan and comprehensive long-term budget deal by the end of the year.”
Warning that we are “on a collision course with time,” Schultz said “the responsibility of a company of any kind is changing because we have to provide for employees, help the communities we serve, and obviously, the government is not providing the leadership it once did.”
Next to the petition were Starbucks’ latest two designer cups — a cinnamon-colored one, $8.95, “Made in Thailand,” and a glossy gray one, $9.95, “Made in China.”
The bottom line for a socially responsible company like Starbucks, according to Schultz? “We don’t want to ignore what we believe are our responsibilities in the communities we serve.”
