Is This Worthy of an Editorial

Look, I'm the resident "coffee guy" but is there any reason for the Chicago Tribune to write an editorial congratulating Starbucks on their 40th anniversary?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-starbucks-20110328,0,2983780.story

It looks more like an advertorial.

Someone's PR agency did a good job.

 

Especially since this appeared in Chicago and not in Seattle.

 

That's what I don't get. If it was about a local business done good, fine. But what's he connection between Starbucks & Chicago?

Sometimes -- actually most of the time -- the Trib just seems so minor league. Something like this would never appear as an editorial in the New York Times or the Washington Post.

The Trib no longer appears to even be aspiring to greatness. It's a shell of what it used to be.

Most of the articles in it that I do find interesting -- say an article about business trends -- come from the LA Times and all of the local references are to LA. How hard would it be to take an article like that, use the national information and then plug in local references? Give the original author the byline and assign an intern to get some quotes from local businesses.

 

No.

 

Yes, followed by an editorial saluting the Chamber of Commerce.

 

Anyone who can get the public to pay $4 for sterile atmosphere and a cup of coffee that's no better than average is doing something right and deserves to be saluted.

 

Society broke down once some business people figured out that you don't have to provide better product to make people pay more. You just charge them more and they believe they are getting better product. It's a breakdown in the way the human mind works.

 

Whu???

 

This seems pretty out-of-place. They mention the "inflated prices" in the story, but then they thank Starbucks. It would be ok, in my opinion, only if they were bashing American culture and the company, considering the prices...this absolutely reads like a staff-produced advertorial.

 

Personally, I go pretty regularly, and like the coffee enough, but would never pay those prices just for the coffee. It's the only place I'm productive - too many distractions at home or in my office. I pay rent when I have a big block of time & a lot to get done & I get a cup of coffee too.

 

Starting tomorrow: full-page Starbucks ads in the Chicago Tribune.

 

That was actually a pretty informative piece on what has become one of the defining symbols of our culture.

Until the halfway point. Then it became a love note.