Not long ago and with little fanfare,
Montana lost one of its distinctions. It ceased to be one of the
last few states without a Starbucks Coffee Shop. Last year, only
six states didn’t have a stand-alone store. The offending shop
arrived in August in Helena on Prospect Avenue.
The
greenish copper rotunda of the Capitol building was visible above
the trees and housetops as I pulled away from the Starbucks
drive-through window.
Right. I patronized the store. In
the morning I went in for drinks and in the early afternoon I
whipped around to the window for a cup to go.
The truth is
that I both despise and desire Starbucks. Back in Boulder, Colo.,
we went so often to the chain for drinks that the green logo with
the wild-haired woman was one of the first signs that my son
recognized. He would say, “Starbucks logo!” the way other kids can
pinpoint a McDonald’s with a tiny glimpse of the yellow
arches.
My son was two and a new talker, and I explained
that the logo represents American cultural and corporate
imperialism. I repeated the phrase to him in the hopes that it
would echo out of his mouth someday in mixed company. (Instead, he
echoed another phrase that I wish he’d forget: “Don’t be such a
chump.”)
Starbucks has begun its assault on Montana with
its typical alacrity and aggression. By Christmas, the painfully
helpful barista explained, the one Helena shop would be reinforced
by another. Rumors abound of an expansion to Billings. What’s to
stop the front from moving onto Great Falls, Bozeman and
Missoula?
Part of me can’t wait. Growing up in the
‘80s in Billings was like living in a wasteland. The city had
minimal legal entertainment for teens. I daydreamed about coffee
shops and other hangouts. A trip to Missoula, the hip university
town, was a chance to live a fantasy. Weird people walked the
streets wearing cool T-shirts and carrying paper cups of coffee. I
would have given a kingdom for a coffee shop that stayed open until
9.
And even today, most towns in Montana don’t have a
place to stop for a quick cup of strong coffee when you’re driving
through at 7 on a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon. I love
Starbucks coffee. I think coffee should always make you feel like
you can eat nails.
Some corporate chains can bring a net
gain to a community. You can crucify me for saying so, but Barnes
& Noble Booksellers was a tremendous addition to Billings. The
city had no large bookstores. It probably increased by a factor of
10 the number of titles on sale there. And Starbucks offers health
insurance to its employees. The coffee shops where I worked as a
young adult didn’t.
On the other hand, Montana has long
been wonderfully free of the rest of the world. Old fast-food
restaurants from the 1950s survive here. They simply never heard
that the world had passed them by. Only a fraction of the
presidential candidates in the past half-century campaigned
here.
So it was a shock to see the logo of the wild-haired
woman on the green circular sign in Helena. Another piece of the
outside world has come.
As I drove away, splashing the
familiar hot coffee on my hand, I began to fret. The problem with
chains is they often kill the elements that give a region its
distinctive flavor. I have a friend who won’t go to a restaurant if
it’s not a chain. He wants a familiar menu with familiar items.
It’s people like him who make me worry that a Starbucks in Missoula
might endanger my favorite coffee shops. When my son, now 5, and I
drive the 45 miles to town, we like to get cookies and drinks at
Bernice’s Bakery by the Clarks Fork River.
The music in
Bernice’s isn’t canned, and the tables and chairs don’t
match. The brick walls hold photos and paintings by local artists.
You hear an eclectic mix of music, and the coffee is thick and
strong. I’ll be heart-broken if a Starbucks comes to Missoula and
Bernice’s closes.
But our borders have been crossed. The
wild-haired lady in green nears. I’m heartened by a news story I
read in the Wall Street Journal a few years ago that contradicted
the notion that Starbucks was the death of local coffee shops.
Instead, the story said, local coffee shops often profited, in part
because of a backlash against the corporate intruder. I’ll try to
remember that my dollars are like votes. I try to spend
judiciously.
Bring it on, Starbucks. I’m ready for your
convenient locations near me.
Robert Struckman
is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country
News (hcn.org). He lives and writes near Missoula,
Montana.
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