Nooooooooo!
Well, this certainly brings up an issue — whether a corner of Jackson Square should be occupied by a local guy or by the 15,378,457th location of Starbucks. Seems you can’t sling a dead cat anymore without hitting one of their outlets — either a retail store or their prepackaged products or some third-party place that brags about carrying their crap.
Normally, I’m pretty much of a free-trader. But damn. We don’t need yet another Starbucks –particularly in this location. Their coffee is overroasted, their put-on image is Whole Foodsish in its bogusness and, really, I just don’t want them in Jackson Square. What’s next? A Red Lobster on Decatur Street?
I know La Madeleine (the former occupant of the space) is a chain. But at least what it did seemed appropriate in its Frenchness. I don’t care if Starbucks digs up the remains of Bienville hisowndamnself and props him up in the corner — there’s nothing even remotely local about them.
I say the lack of a Starbucks in the area forces turista-types to sample some of our own, more home-grown coffee places. I’m not overly enamored of the Cafe du Monde — but there are plenty other coffee houses nearby.
This should be a no-brainer for the regulators. But, as we’re all learning, sometimes our regulators have monumental trouble with things like this.
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Yeah I heard about this yesterday. It’s disgusting. Is there a petition against it? Where do I sign?
What a travesty! It can’t happen. Stop it, please!
It won’t be the first time we lose to economics.
I remember when Morial let the Old Absinthe House go and it was quickly turned into another Bourbon St Daiquiri/Pizza place. I wonder who was paid off for that one.
This is truly ridiculous. I only pray that the “Starbucks on every corner” attitude does not define the “new” New Orleans. Sure we need $ flow but I’d rather a slow but deliberate recovery than a quick soul-less recovery.
Where’s the petition? I’ll sign it too!!
This has nothing to do with economics. There’s no way a Starbucks could profit in that location –across the street from Cafe Du Monde, it’s all about brand exposure. Fuck them.
There is a Starbucks directly across the street from La Segrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, Spain, one of the biggest tourist locations in Europe. Nobody fucking buys coffee there, Europeans don’t like Starbucks, most American tourists would rather go to a quaint little cafe. The rent is probably astronomical. But it’s exposure for their brand, like a giant billboard for them. That’s their angle here and hopefully there’s some way to stop them.
I think Chris is exactly right. In virtually every tourist snapshot and news camera pan of Jackson Square, there would be a Starbucks logo in there someplace. It’s a marketer’s dream.
It would be (I think — correct me if I’m wrong)the first national branding in Jackson Square. That alone makes it worth denial. Not that I think national chains don’t have a place — and I frequent plenty of them, sometimes by choice and sometimes because there’s no choice these days in Orleans Parish.
I just hope our regulators can draw a line.
Awe, let poor little Starbucks have the damn place. It won’t make any difference. Plus it’ll go nicely when they turn the Cabildo into a Target….that’s French right?
Isn’t there something to be said for letting market forces decide what goes where?
Honestly though, I’m tired of being outraged by shit that ultimately doesn’t matter. And if I was going to be outraged I’d pick something better than whether there’s a Starbucks there. But then I wasn’t strongly opposed to Walmart coming uptown either and it’s just destroyed the Garden District with its presence…just destroyed all the New Orleans Charm for miles around.
lol
Normally I’m a market forces kinda guy. But in this case, the regulators are forming the market. Long as the city and state get the tax money, seems to me they should side with the local. But it occurs to me that Starbucks could indeed decide to grease the wheels with various “contributions” and whatever — which would fall right into line with Business As Usual in this city. Cynicism and experience tell me they’ll just follow the money. Idealism tells me they’ve got a chance to break the pattern. We’ll see.
The Wal-Mart was a different issue — something to take the place of the decrepit and crime-ridden public housing that used to be in the neighborhood. That’s not the case in Jackson Square.
You up for beers tomorrow evening?
Can’t until about 7 or so. Gimme a yell.
Works for me.
Isn’t there something to be said for letting market forces decide what goes where?
Doesn’t mean that the market in question (in this case, us) has to accept every lame-ass project that comes down the pike. Stopping a project in the planning phase strikes me as a very fundamental expression of “market force,” which is, ultimately, a product of the entities who make up the market.
The Garden District managed to fight Starbucks off a few years back and the Vieux Carre is at least as highly motivated and has more sympathizers, IMO. Should be an interesting bout.
Starbucks in Jackson Square would be utterly gross, but not the end of the world. I hope it doesn’t happen, but it probably will. The almighty dollar will win out over charm and history time and time again.
I was thinking more about the market force thing and Martel’s comment about them just wanting a sign in Jackson Square….
Normally, a business like that would open, being inappropriate for the area, no one would go, they wouldn’t make a profit, and would be forced to close up shop.
In this case though, a place like Starbucks could just use marketing funds to pay the rent, payroll, etc and consider the store a marketing effort with no intention of ever making a profit at that location.
I’m sure Starbuck’s executives aren’t planning on the store not making a profit, but it is a nice way to hedge their bet about a location there.
So I guess, in this case there is the potential for the market forces to breakdown. I’m not sure artificial market forces are the right answer though.
And RCS, I just can’t agree with “Stopping a project in the planning phase strikes me as a very fundamental expression of market force”. And yes, every lame-ass project that can make a profit earns a place in the market. I mean, I don’t like the trend of “urban wear” stores popping up all over the place, but the market allows it so that’s that. And yes, the FQ is a little bit of an exception to all this, but I’m not sure too tight of control is a good thing.
How is Starbucks going to take over the world without infiltrating the Quarter? Gotta eliminate local culture to break down the resistance to global domination.
Write to the Louisiana State Museum and tell them we don’t want this: http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/contact.htm