Indignant Desert Birds

I’m currently in a “Jew class” (Rabbi Menacham Creditor’s Spiritual Practice and Jewish Law), and of the many things I’m learning – being gay is awesome (okay, I already knew that), Jews are crazy (right, I already knew that too), and I am a minority in the shul for not keeping kosher (ouch) – I also am learning that Starbucks is not a Jewish enterprise.

I’ll admit that any two Jews will have three opinions, and that Jewish thought has more than one opinion on this subject, but stay with me.

The Gemara, from which a lot of Jewish law is derived, says that you may not set up a fishing net too close to another person’s fishing net, making all the fish that would have gone into the original person’s net fall into yours. And while Starbucks doesn’t sell fish, this story simply says, don’t compete for the same business in the same town. While a bunch of rabbis later came on to dispute this claim, others created rules on which competition is allowed including: you are forbidden to open a store at the entrance of a dead-end alley if a similar store is already located farther within. These rabbis consider such competition unfair business practices because passer-bys will walk in the first business, but not see the other one father in the alley.

In downtown San Francisco, there are two Starbucks across the street from one another. Elsewhere, I’ve heard rumors that Starbucks purposely sets up shop near local coffee shops because they know that’s a good location for coffee, and hope to take that business. Obviously, Starbucks is not living up to the high Jewish standards of fair business transactions.

And yet! The other rabbis that dispute these claims, they believe that all “local” competitors are unrestricted in their ability to open a rival business. In this global age, I’m not sure local is a word I understand any more, and maybe Starbucks’ bad coffee is a Jewish enterprise after all. Or maybe it isn’t. We’ll never really know, though. We thrive on lively debate of our religion and daily (coffee) practice.

Edit:
A friend of mine pointed out this article, which says mom and pop shops are often helped by Starbucks being near them. While this may be true, it still doesn’t make them a Jewish enterprise. Christian, maybe, since Christians believe in love and good will much more (or, rather, in a different way) than Jews. So maybe Starbucks is an accidentally Christian enterprise, but they still doesn’t wear a kippah on their heads.

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