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The Great Vancouver vs. Seattle Debate

Posted Mon, Jun 22, 6 a.m.

Is the civic grass greener on the other side of the border? Two urban experts each make the case for the others' home town.

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Starbucks has a G.M. moment

Posted Mon, Jun 8, 6 a.m.

Judging by its latest ad campaign, Starbucks is losing touch with its customers, just as G.M. did. So here's a suggestion to turn the coffee giant around.

READ MORE 7 COMMENTS

The Cascadian Dream

Posted Thu, Apr 9, 6 a.m.

Can a Pacific Northwest utopia be shaped on the shared belief that nature is sacred? This latest installment in a series on regional identity looks at the patron saint of the environmental movement, John Muir, and how his thinking informs the desire for a new, greener, and elusive entity some call Cascadia.

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Getting the jitters

Posted Sat, Jul 5, 6 a.m.

Starbucks' "third place" concept is under pressure from laptops, McDonald's, and a decline in snob appeal.

READ MORE 5 COMMENTS

A week of weakonomics

Posted Wed, Jun 25, 9 a.m.

If you look away from the Sonics trial for a moment, you can see warning signs that the seemingly immune local economy is actually pretty precarious.

READ MORE 2 COMMENTS

A city of scolds

Posted Thu, May 8, 4 p.m.

Seattle City Hall has cracked down on drinking and clubs, it's on the verge of banning fast food and taxing plastic grocery bags, and now even plastic-bottled water is a civic sin. Switch to tap water! says the mayor. Mossback thinks enough is enough.

READ MORE 23 COMMENTS

What made the Seattle style of business a success

Posted Thu, Apr 24, 2 p.m.

As civic icons like Safeco drift away from their Puget Sound roots, here's a look at the components of a Seattle way of doing business that built up such brands. The key was motivated employees. The poison was rapid growth.

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The real first Starbucks

Posted Wed, Apr 9, 5 a.m.

The modern chain is "going back to its roots" and launching a house coffee called Pike Place Blend. Our author well remembers the first Starbucks store and the first day of business, since he happens to have been the first customer.

READ MORE 6 COMMENTS

Jean Godden on Seattle: My, how you've changed!

Posted Thu, Mar 27, 5 a.m.

The longtime columnist for Seattle's dailies casts an affectionate eye over the many sweeping transformations of the city, and wonders if all the newcomers will learn to cherish the uniqueness of the place.

READ MORE 11 COMMENTS

Score one for Googie

Posted Thu, Jan 3, 7 a.m.

While three charming old Capitol Hill buildings are sentenced to be razed by Sound Transit, two modern buildings get approval from the Seattle landmarks board: a sleek International-style office building and a quirky Ballard diner.

READ MORE 29 COMMENTS

Bucking the trend by pouring it straight

Posted Thu, Nov 22, midnight

In Starbucked, a Portlander chronicles the rise of the coffee chain we hate to love.

READ MORE 1 COMMENTS

Seattle is happy to make you fat

Posted Thu, Aug 2, 11 p.m.

When it comes to the war on obesity, this place is a merchant of death. Meanwhile, fat America – which is most of us – gets the blame.

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Just another metropolis

Posted Fri, Jul 6, midnight

There remain only hints of Seattle's scrappy, provincial heritage of fish, timber, and frontier commerce – of even the sonic and binary booms that propelled the modern city to greatness. Seattle no longer feels unique.

READ MORE 60 COMMENTS

Another roadside attraction is about to be demolished

Posted Tue, Jun 26, midnight

Hold the wrecking ball. You know that funny looking Denny's in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood? It's slated to be razed for condos. So what? It turns out it's an important piece of modern architecture with historic links to Seattle's coffee culture.

READ MORE 30 COMMENTS

The competitor extraordinaire: Howard Schultz

Posted Tue, Apr 3, 1 a.m.

One of the original founders of Starbucks mulls the famous Schultz memo and offers his thoughts on world coffee hegemony.

READ MORE 1 COMMENTS

Other media

Good financial news at Starbucks, at last It beats the forecast for the last quarter and raises its target for the coming year, as signs of a turnaround finally appear after closing cafes and slashing costs.

Can Starbucks get its brand loyalty back? Howard Schultz's epic effort to recapture the brand magic, lost when the company grew so large, is being closely studied.

Carly Simon's bad breakup with Starbucks When the Seattle coffee giant shut down its Hear Music record label, sales of the singer's latest album went with it, she says, so she's suing.

How 12 Seattle coffee shops got their names Caffe Ladro, for example, means coffee thief. And that's no accident.

Starbucks plays coffee challenge ... with itself As the coffee giant's instant coffee goes national on Tuesday, customers are invited to try a side-by-side taste test.

Blog posts

Starbucks' midlife crisis

Posted Fri, Jul 17, noon

On Seattle's Capitol Hill, the coffee company is ditching its brand for a hipper, indie-friendly make-over.

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Starbucks is the new garage

Posted Tue, May 19, 6 a.m.

In re-building the brand, the coffee company could find opportunity with the Great Recession's diaspora.

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Vancouver has Starbucks withdrawal pains

Posted Tue, Apr 21, 6 a.m.

The grieving B.C. city needs to recall how it inspired Starbucks in the first place, with a little help from Berkeley

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River of coffee?

Posted Thu, Apr 2, 2 p.m.

A Washington place name proposal that could make a mark in latte land.

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Adding insult to injury

Posted Fri, Jan 30, noon

Not only are jobs getting scarcer, but costs are still rising. What is it about recessions that the government doesn't understand?

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Rich jerk watch

Posted Fri, Jan 23, noon

A CEO's $35,000 toilet and Howard Schultz's pay cut.

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Did Howard Schultz pull the last plug for the Sonics?

Posted Wed, Sep 3, 4:23 a.m. 2008

Last week, Howard Schultz threw in the legal towel on his lawsuit trying to recover the Sonics from Oklahoma City. Thanks, Howard. Had he capitulated earlier, when the City was working out its deal with the Oklahoma City purchasers, there would have been leverage, maybe earning a firmer pledge from the NBA about a future expansion. This way, Schultz and Seattle got nothing in return for dropping the suit.

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The end of several eras

Posted Thu, Jul 31, 3:05 p.m. 2008

As two Seattle icons celebrate a combined 70 years on the scene, two other mainstays prepare their exit.

Wednesday morning, July 30, KIRO-AM (710) talk-show host Dave Ross celebrated his 30th year on the air with a three-hour retrospective featuring tributes from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, visits from colleagues past and present, and a liberal helping of the parodist's musical stylings. Friday night, Aug. 1, KING-TV (5) news anchor Jean Enersen will celebrate her 40th anniversary at the station with a one-hour special that she only allowed after management "suggested the piece could be a springboard for talking about mobile vans where anybody can get a mammogram."

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Seattle and the elixir of growth

Posted Thu, Jul 24, 11 a.m. 2008

In some moods, I think that Seattle's business renaissance has peaked. Starbucks is contracting, Microsoft is stumbling, Boeing is losing bids, Safeco is sold, and Washington Mutual is sinking. Has our formula of rapid growth spreading across the globe run into the wall?

But then I look at the front page of today's "Marketplace" section of The Wall Street Journal, where three of the four stories are about Seattle-based companies. There's the story of Microsoft's scramble in the executive suite, with the sudden departure of Kevin Johnson, formerly in charge of the Yahoo merger campaign; Costco reporting an earnings squeeze as the prices for merchandise are rising faster than they can pass along costs to its value-seeking customers; and Amazon doubling its second-quarter profits as customers shift from shopping by car to shopping by online.

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My Starbucks is closing!

Posted Mon, Jul 21, 9:17 a.m. 2008

I learned the news just this morning. My favorite barista let me know. She, of course, is worried about her job. I, of course, am worried about her job. But I'm even more worried about my java.

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