Should coffee giant Starbucks really be worried about backlash over its former CEO Howard Schultz potentially ruining the Democrats’ chances of taking down Donald Trump in 2020? A new report by Bloomberg notes that nearly 70% of Starbucks cafes are in Democrat-heavy districts — and the world’s most powerful coffee franchise is already feeling some of the negative economic effects of people simply talking about boycotting.
“It just so happens that those Democrats are most heavily concentrated in the urban areas and coastal states where Starbucks does the bulk of its business,” Bloomberg reports. “Almost 7 of 10 Starbucks stores are in the roughly 500 counties Democrat Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential election, a Bloomberg analysis of data from location intelligence firm Esri shows.”
Bloomberg provides a map of Starbucks’ U.S. locations, showing significant concentrations of the cafes in blue districts:
Just the threat of such boycotts has investors getting nervous. Bloomberg notes that boycott talks have “triggered some investors to boost bets against the company in recent weeks.” In response, company execs are scrambling to separate themselves from the increasingly toxic Schultz, who has repeatedly taken aim at not only Donald Trump, but the leadership of the Democratic Party and its key presidential hopefuls. However, one big problem with Starbucks executives trying to distance themselves from Schultz, Bloomberg points out, is that he continues to be one of its top shareholders.
“There very well likely could be a risk,” Pacific Management Consulting Group’s John Gordon told Bloomberg. “These retailers, they need to stay out of politics because this country is divided on a wire, and Howard is so identified with Starbucks.”
While it may be a big “risk” for his former company, Schultz isn’t shying away from the controversy — even amid significant backlash from the Left. In fact, he’s deliberately picking fights with Democratic leaders and presidential candidates. Schultz even decided to takes some swipes at Democrat darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez this week, slamming her impossible “Green New Deal.”
“I read that by 2030 they’re suggesting that every building in America becomes clean energy, conforms to clean energy, just to put that in perspective, because it’s not realistic, that would mean that between 2,000 and 3,000 buildings a day would have to be reconstructed to conform to what they’re saying,” said Schultz at one of his campaign-like events Tuesday. “So let’s be sensible about what we’re suggesting.”
The idea of racking up the kind of debt required for AOC’s initiatives, he said, is simply “immoral.”
“I don’t understand how you’re going to give a job for everybody, how you’re going to give free college to everybody, how you’re going to create clean energy throughout the country in every building of the land,” said Schultz. “I think it’s immoral to suggest that we can tally up $20, $30, $40, $50 trillion of debt to solve a problem that could be solved in a different way.”
Related: Cue Dem Meltdown: Look At What Happens To Presidential Polls When You Add Howard Schultz Into Mix