Chatbots telling us what we want. Robots making our coffee. Baristas reduced to smiling servers. If Starbucks and other brands get their way, this is the future: a frictionless, interactionless, lifeless coffee experience.
As the rightwing backlash to LGBTQ+ rights in the United States continues, some Starbucks workers have been told they can’t decorate their stores for Pride Month. Managers have even removed already-hung flags, although Starbucks denies that the moves are corporate policy. The union, meanwhile, calls them “a clear continuation of Starbucks’ anti-union campaign to intimidate workers.”
Nordic Approach, is the latest specialty coffee importer to be acquired by a billion-dollar multinational after its takeover by Neumann Kaffee Gruppe.
Workers at three Peet’s Coffee locations in Berkeley and Oakland, California, have filed for union elections citing “wage stagnation, understaffing, and unsafe working conditions.”
And Starbucks wants to green its milk supply chain, although it’s kinda hard when dairy is such a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions.
I'm a coffee writer and creator of The Pourover. Based in Scotland, I have over a decade of experience in the specialty coffee industry. Ask me about coffeewashing. It's pronounced Fin (he/him)
