Starbucks' Mission: Social Responsibilityu and Brand Strenght

Starbucks is very well known and also considered to be the leading coffee company in the world.

Starbucks was originally started as one store but has since developed into over 17,000 stores in many different countries and is expected to grow more and more rapidly within the next few years. Starbucks originated in Seattle, Washington in 1971. They are continually putting more and smaller coffee shops out of business. Starbucks had a lawsuit against them for using anti-competitive tactics to get rid of their competitors. Starbucks employees would hand out free samples of their own coffee right outside of the small coffee shops in their neighborhoods, gaining more business and profit for themselves. They would try to buyout all other coffee shops near them. They would also sign leases for 3 times as much as the market value so that landlords wouldn't rent to other coffee sellers. One example was a small coffee shop in Boston, MA had been running for 25 years when all of a sudden their property manager would not renew their lease however, the next renters of that property was Starbucks. This does not seem like a coincidence. Kapinos and Rollins writes, "Trying to buyout her company so there was no other competition on the block". This was one of the examples of what Starbucks was doing to small companies when the lawsuit was filed.

These actions and procedures by Starbucks are very unethical according to the Utilitarian, Kantian, and virtue theories. The only theory Starbucks would be considered ethical under would be the individualism theory. According to the individualism theory Starbucks would be considered ethical because everything that they are doing and the actions that are taking out are to maximize their profits. Individualism would consider Starbucks to be ethical in every way because they are substantially gaining profits by expanding their business and making more and more Starbucks' around the world. They are gaining and not losing any profit...