Coffee in a time of conflict: Starbucks' growth risks backlash

By HELEN JUNG
The Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) -- As McDonald's Corp. downsizes plans for adding golden arches around the world, the next global corporate icon is on the rise.

Starbucks Corp. already has turned much of North America into a Starbucks Nation. The Seattle-based coffee chain has stepped far beyond its Pike Place Market origins, spreading regionally, nationally and now internationally in an ambitious plan to peddle its coffee chic regardless of peso, euro or yen. The company plans to open at least 1,200 stores in its 2003 fiscal year alone.

But like McDonald's, which has been targeted by everyone from anti-war demonstrators to vegetarians, Starbucks is finding that global fame -- especially in a time of war -- carries a price. Starbucks is being boycotted by anti-war protesters in Lebanon and criticized by New Zealand advocates for higher coffee prices to farmers. This month, faced with the spectre of terrorist attacks, Starbucks pulled out of Israel.

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