We all know and love Starbucks, but how detrimental can it be to a small community? Starbucks is known to bring in a revenue amount of $3,800 a day, with the 80% that Starbucks makes and the end of the day. That is a lot of people a day visiting Starbucks, and purchasing their merchandise. It is deemed that an average of seventy million people a day visit Starbucks throughout the 30,000 different locations they have worldwide. Starbucks is a huge corporation, and has the name and reputation it does due to its products and the quality of the items they sell. From coffee to food to merchandise, they have done an amazing job gearing their products to all different ages. Kids love the sweeter drinks that have prettys colors associated with them, and adults can have a mix of the strong coffee with a hint of sweetness as well. Or if you are into just black coffee, they of course have that as well. There has been a proposal to open a large Starbucks in my town with a drive through. It is known that many but not all Starbucks have drive throughs, and it allows people to seamlessly and easily purchase their coffee. With that being said, it will attract more customers to this Starbucks which is great for the company, but not great for the traffic it will cause to this town. We all know living on Long Island that it is already filled with terrible traffic whether you are on a parkway, expressway, or a highway. Making a Starbucks on the side of a highway will only back the highway up, and result in the highway going from three lanes of traffic down to only two lanes. The property that was presented is not a small property, but it will not be able to efficiently allow traffic to flow. During morning rush hour traffic it is back to back traffic to begin with, and now with the right lane possibly being used as a line for the starbucks could be very detrimental. This proposal was presented to the town board and legislators and was voted on. A result of the vote, the Starbucks was given the green light to begin contracting their permits, and then starting the plans for the building. The construction took a very quick amount of time, and by the time it was voted on to when the construction was completed it took about four months. The town was divided about how this could benefit the town, and the negatives of building a Starbucks in the town. Where I am from we have a lot of local coffee shops, therefore it was concerning that with this new construction and opening of the corporate Starbucks that it would take away from the local business. Small towns like my own thrive off of the support of local family owned small businesses. We do a lot for them in return as far as using them as boosters for local high schools and middle schools, and they always reciprocate the support by treating the schools to many sports team oriented dinners. People now from other towns will support the big business as opposed to the small businesses, and this results in a struggle for the local small business owner. I had asked a few people their opinions of the construction of the business and got many different opposing responses. I tried to ask different age groups to better understand if maybe it was an age differential opinion, or if it was just an overall opinion as per the community. My first interview was with a 12 year old girl. Her response included the fact that she was happy there was a Starbucks moving to the community, because it was tradition for her to stop at a starbucks and get a drink as well as a cake pop on her way to dance. Due to her dance studio being out of town, the ride to the studio passed a Starbucks and she would always make a pitstop for a treat before arriving at the dance studio. Being that she is younger she did not have much of an opinion of whether or not she thought it would cause more traffic. I had predicted that her answer would reflect on her age, and I was correct. As I started interviewing adults over the age of 25 I saw many of them had the same opinion. The next person I interviewed was of the age of 27. I had asked the same questions for all the people I interviewed. Her response to me asking how she felt about the construction of the Starbucks was both sided. She was happy due to Starbucks having drinks that local coffee shops may not have, but agrees with the argument that it takes away from the many local coffee shops that are seen in the community. She also did say that she is guilty of being one of those people that may support corporate business more than local businesses due to the convenience of them. She said that Starbucks for example is a very fast paced environment and by the time you order to the time you pull up to the drive through window you are getting your coffee in less than 5 minutes. Many times at local coffee shops they do not have drive throughs, as well as not much staff. That results in a slower turnover for receiving your goods such as coffee. Efficiency is a large part of a person's daily life and especially in New York. We seek fast paced environments no matter where we go. The last person I had interviewed was an older gentleman that was of the age of 45. He has stated that he is not interested in the fact of a Starbucks being added to the local town, because it will cause more traffic than there already is. He also said that he makes his own coffee at home therefore he is not into the idea of stopping for coffee in the morning. Overall I feel as if I got different answers depending on the person's age as well as how they feel about the coffee itself from Starbucks.
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