Strikers and supporters outside Cleveland Circle Starbucks. Photo by Saul Tannenbaum.
Workers at several Boston Starbucks walked off the job this morning as part of a nationwide strike, including: Cleveland Circle, 1304 Commonwealth Ave. and 217 Western Ave. in Brighton, 874 Commonwealth Ave. at BU and Federal Street downtown.
The Daily Free Press reports unionized workers at the Starbucks at 874 Commonwealth Ave. walk a picket line 24 hours a day, in part to foil management from having unionized truck drivers making deliveries at random times - the drivers have said they won't cross picket lines.
Workers at the Starbucks at 1948 Beacon St. in Brighton struck this morning after they say the shop's owners refused repeated requests to fix problems that finally cascaded into water coming out of ceiling lighting fixtures, streaming down "onto the floors, espresso machines, counter spaces and the partners themselves" for several hours yesterday. Read more.
Starbucks Workers United reports workers at the Starbucks at 1304 Commonwealth Ave. in Allston and 277 Harvard St. in Coolidge Corner both voted unanimously to unionize today.
WGBH reports they will seek to become members of the Workers United Labor Union, which won a unionization vote at a Buffalo Starbucks.
The Bulletin reports that the River Street mall with the Price Rite and the Burger King at the Hyde Park/Mattapan line, could get a Starbucks and a Planet Fitness.
Developer Todd Finard, who has been trying to fill the space left vacant since he tore down what was left of the old paper mill there in 2007 and 2008, will hold a community meeting on the two possible additions to the Shops at Riverwood at 6 p.m. on March 24.
A Rhode Island man who says he used to guzzle bottled Starbucks Frappuccino Chilled Coffee Drink from a supermarket across the state line in Massachusetts is now seeking millions of dollars in recompense for himself and other frap fans he says the company has deceived because there is no actual vanilla in the stuff. Read more.
With fewer BU students around, the Starbucks at 500 Commonwealth Ave. is calling it quits, at least until next semester, the Daily Free Press reports.
Word reaches the UHub listening station that, with approval from the Boston Licensing Board, the Starbucks on Rte. 1A south in East Boston will start 24-hour drive-thru service on Monday.
Starbucks goes before the Licensing Board for the City that Always Sleeps next week for permission to keep its outlet at 430 McClellan Highway, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Read more.
Meg McClaff alerts us that the Starbucks at 165 Newbury St., between Dartmouth and Exeter, will serve its last latte ever sometime before 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 24 - forcing its regulars to walk a whole two blocks to the one at 750 Boylston St., or, if that one becomes overloaded beyond endurance, a half mile to the one at 350 Newbury St. or the one at 443 Boylston St.
The City Council agreed today to consider a proposal by councilors Michelle Wu, Kim Janey and Lydia Edwards that would require retail and restaurant chains to get zoning-board approval before opening any new outlets in the city's "local business" districts. Read more.
NorthEndWaterfront.com reports on a community meeting last night on the proposed Cross Street building that would include a Starbucks (and posts video of the entire meeting, should you enjoy nearly three hours of tenseness and anger).
The Charlestown Patriot-Bridge surveys the populace about the impending arrival of the neighborhood's first Seattle-based coffeehouse. While some can't wait, others worry about the chainification of the neighborhood. Peer pressure is being applied:
Some of my friends made fun of me for liking Starbucks. The Town is changing though. We have a T-Mobile store here now and a Whole Foods. Things are changing and I say go with the flow.
A concerned citizen doesn't want any hair of the dog and files a complaint about a South End Starbucks:
Third time in 10 days I have seen a dog in this Starbucks at 627 Tremont in the south end. Management is oblivious. These are not service dogs.
Caught in Southie reports the Boston Licensing Board today approved a Starbucks at L Street and Broadway, which will either make City Point great again or result in the heat death of the universe, depending on whom you talk to.
The Boston Licensing Board today deferred any action on a license request for a Starbucks proposed for L Street and Broadway. Read more.
Proponents and opponents of a proposed Starbucks at L Street and Broadway are painting the now empty space in Michael Norton's building as the cornerstone of the neighborhood's future.
At a Boston Licensing Board hearing this morning, though, they described very different futures for City Point, the part of South Boston that has yet to see the tsunami of development and chains that has overtaken the neighborhood west of Dorchester Street. Read more.
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