Starbucks has announced that it will cut 6,700 jobs and close 300 stores in the next eight months.
Perhaps I’m merely trying to find silver linings, but I have a thought. As awful as these layoffs are, local businessmen and entrepreneurs have the opportunity to start businesses on a local, small-scale level—companies that have no national budgets to meet, companies designed merely to meet the needs of their community.
I’m not against national companies or large chain stores. But there’s something to be said for community businesses (“local flavor” as Davey calls it), and the current economic downturn offers businessmen and consumers alike a chance: the chance to re-learn the importance of community.
And who better to teach them than the Church?