Starbucks has faced controversy due to a pro-Palestine statement allegedly released by Starbucks Workers United amidst the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. To make a long story short, many are boycotting Starbucks after it decided to sue its labour union (Starbucks Workers United) this month over the labour union's post for supporting Palestinians.
That begs the question. Should we abstain from indulging in Spicy Pumpkin Latte from Starbucks? Deciding whether you should cancel your next trip to Starbucks is a personal decision but before you decide to boycott Starbucks Malaysia, here are a few things to consider:
- There are no Starbucks in Israel
This may come to you as a surprise but there are no Starbucks stores in Israel, not even one - zero, zilch, nada. They closed all of their stores in Israel in 2003 due to several factors which included not adapting to the local culture and the Israel market being too small for the company. To suggest that somehow, buying a cup of coffee in any store in Malaysia would contribute to Israel in any way is nonsensical as there are no Starbucks stores in Israel at all. Plus, rumours that Starbucks provides support to the Israeli government or its army are unequivocally false. This brings me to my next point being…
2. Berjaya Food Berhad owns Starbucks Malaysia
Starbucks Malaysia is owned by Berjaya Food Bhd; Berjaya Food Bhd is under Berjaya Corporation Berhad which is famously founded by our very own Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan. If you still don't know who that is, you might recognize him if you are a football fan as he is the owner of Cardiff City FC. But you may wonder who runs Berjaya Food Berhad (a subsidiary under Berjaya Corporation Berhad) and Starbucks Malaysia? That would be none other than Sydney Quays who was born and raised in Penang. As you can see the company is led and managed by Malaysians.
3. But…but Starbucks is founded by a Jew?
Yes, Starbucks was founded by Howard Schultz who is an Ashkenazi Jew. However, can we stand on a moral high ground if we boycott a company merely on the basis that it is founded by a Jew? It would be no different than the Americans boycotting and leaving one-star reviews for Ayat, a Palestinian restaurant just because the owner is a Palestinian; he suffers immense financial and reputation losses unfairly following the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
And what about the Jews in Jewish-led organizations such as Jewish Voice For Peace who urged the US government to "immediately take steps to withdraw military funding to Israel and to hold the Israeli government accountable for its gross violations of human rights and war crimes against Palestinians.” Or this Jewish man who wants the land to be returned to Palestinians? Should we condemn them just because they are Jews?
4. Starbucks employs a lot of people including those with disabilities
Starbucks has more than 5,000 Starbucks' partners in Malaysia and they include students, young people, working parents and people of the Deaf community. At the time of writing, they have 3 Signing Stores, one in KL, one in Penang and one in Sarawak. With the Signing Stores, Starbucks Malaysia seeks to uplift the deaf community by creating employment opportunities and advancement for deaf partners (employees). If we were to boycott Starbucks Malaysia and are successful at it, Starbucks Malaysia would have no choice but to lay off its employees to reduce its labour cost. What will happen then to our fellow disabled Malaysians? They already have trouble getting employment due to their disabilities. Are we sure we want to take their employment away from them? This reminds me of a viral post circulating on social media and Reddit where a woman lamented that due to the recent boycott on McDonald's, her deaf brother-in-law is unemployed and is left to fend for his family by himself.
All these calls for boycotts and yet the only ones we hurt are our own Keluarga Malaysia.
Aaron Colt is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
