All Politics is Local. Some Starbucks Are.

It’s hard to be a mega-corporation. If you try to be nice and fit into the local culture, people still complain, or at the very least mock.

How do you get people to stop thinking of you as a Big, Faceless Corporation More Interested In Stockholders Than Being Truly Local?

Well, Plan Z for Starbucks is a store in Louisiana that mimics an old Louisiana apothecary. Apparently they’re adapting other specific stores in specific cities to mimic the cultural heritage that they’re plopped down into the midst of.

Still, people complain. Mockingly.

I think there are two ways to get the cynics to admit that you’re not that bad, just because you’re a giant capitalist entity incapable of behaving exactly like a human because, though you’re run by humans, you’re really mostly a bunch of paper that keeps track of inventory, costs, and profits.

1. Don’t worry about it. Don’t even try. People will resent you, and use you, and by some weird default you become part of their community simply because you’re physically there. That’s the McDonald’s approach.

2. Actually, truly become a community beacon: an example of that, in my experience, is our local Starbucks. In that particular store, I see actual people from our actual community having actual interactions with actual people whom they know outside of the shop to some degree, and the store is just essentially an excuse for them all to get together. Some are on one side of the counter, some are on the other side. Not all Starbucks achieve this—but they achieve it separate from their decor. It’s just like the Grinch! The trappings don’t matter.

So: That Louisiana apothecary is only a success if the real employees make real connections with regular customers, and actually become part of the community.

Otherwise, well, it’s pretty. But the guy from Adweek will still mock them.