The more I get older and have disposable income, the more conscious I want to be about where my money is going. This includes not spending all of my money on Sonny Angle mini figures and trying not to fall for the latest trend floating around TikTok. It also involves caring about which corporations I am giving my money to and knowing which companies to avoid, such as Starbucks.
Starbucks is the number one coffee chain in the world, with 33,900 stores nationwide, making 36.18 billion dollars in the last year alone. Considering their immense profits, you would assume they are able to pay their workers a livable wage. Nope.
Starbucks is notorious for treating its workers unfairly. For example, last December, some workers went on strike due to unfair wages. This affected about 2 percent of stores nationwide. This is not the first time this has happened. Almost yearly, Starbucks baristas plan a walkout or strike of some kind to protest a change the company has made to its policies. The workers went on strike again in May 2025 to protest the new dress code the company has put into place.
This is a recurring problem with Starbucks: treating its workers badly and hoping that if it busts the union, Starbucks will get away with it. They have fired union members or closed down stores if the baristas working there are union members. Starbucks is the Amazon of coffee chains; they continuously treat their workers poorly and work them for so little money that, even if they wanted to leave, most people who work full-time at Starbucks depend on the income and can not just skip a paycheck while looking for a new job.
In all senses of the word, Starbucks is shady, but since there is one on every street, why would you go out of your way to find somewhere else to go? Well, let me introduce you to 7 Brew Coffee. 7 Brew is an up-and-coming chain with about 300 stores nationwide. It was created in February 2017 in Roger, Arkansas.
The franchise offers not only coffee, but energy drinks, teas and lemonade. It is almost like a Dutch Bros, as both companies have a drive-through experience rather than having an actual cafe feel. While 7 Brew does not offer any in-house seating, this system lends to a very quick transaction. A grande-size drink at Starbucks is $4 to $7, while a medium at 7 Brew is only about $3 to $5, and you get almost double the amount of liquid.
Then again, 7 Brew is still a new and developing company. It is hard to say that a year from now it will not be just as bad, or worse than Starbucks.
Corporations are not your friend. You cannot trust the ultra-rich to treat their working-class baristas like human beings. But you can try and spend your money in the best way possible. If you are reading this thinking, “I don’t have a 7 Brew near me, where else should I go to spend my hard-earned money?” I would tell you, support local small businesses! Drive the extra 10 minutes to the mom-and-pop shop that Google says has the best authentic matcha.
Corporations may not be your friends, but your neighbors are.