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# Letter: Readers say Santa Monica has too many Starbucks
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/empty-cups-20080726/
- Published: 2008-07-26T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:22:15.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

This past week, Q-line asked: Coffee giant Starbucks has decided to close one of its 15 locations in Santa Monica. Do you think there are still too many Starbucks in the city? Here are your responses: “YES, I DO THINK THAT THERE ARE TOO many Starbucks in this small city. One or two would have been quite sufficient.”

“TALK ABOUT OVERKILL, OR BEYOND THE saturation point. Starbucks is the master of that.”

“THE QUANTITY OF THE REMAINING 14 Starbucks shops in Santa Monica, fails when one considers the quantity of other coffee shops in Santa Monica, and nearby areas adjacent to Santa Monica, including the coin-offering coffee vending machines that are plentiful. Folks enjoy drinking coffee. I know that I do. The more the better. I enjoy the jitters. Still, in the final analysis, the bottom profit or loss line, will determine the feasibility in keeping or maintaining a business.”

“YEAH, THERE ARE TOO MANY STARBUCKS in this country, and in the world. They should shut them all down, tear the buildings down, salt the earth so nothing grows there, and then use mass hypnosis so everybody will forget that they even existed. That’s the only way to deal with Starbucks.”

“IT SEEMS TO ME THAT STARBUCKS HAS more than 16,000 locations around the world. When it was announced that 600 Starbucks shops would be closing — well — I think the media made a bigger deal out of it then it really is. Maybe a lot of the 600 stores that are closed will become Pinkberry’s, which would be great for the Pinkberry addicts.”

“OF COURSE THERE ARE TOO MANY Starbucks in Santa Monica. And while your at it, we’ve got too many of the old-time City Council members. Give them the Starbucks and give them to the council members, but bring in something new!”

“I HOPE EVERY STARBUCKS IS CLOSED IN Santa Monica. They are a mess, especially the ones on the promenade. They harbor all the homeless, and you have no seat to sit down on, so I feel that they should be closed.”

“YES, I THINK THAT THERE ARE TOO many Starbucks in this city. In fact, I think there are too many coffee shops to begin with. I think that they are all too expensive. Starbucks coffee is delicious. Why don’t they just sell it over the counter in a bag? I know it’s expensive, but it’s very, very good. But I don’t think we need them all over the city.”

“OH MY GOD. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO do? Starbucks: A place where the elite greet, while sitting on their seat. Only two stores are on Montana Avenue. But what will all the mom’s with the spoiled spawn, who run screaming through the store, jumping on the furniture, do? Or the 14 bicyclists using the bathroom, buying one coffee, and blocking the entrance? Can City Hall, yet again, like Batman, come to the rescue? We need a new assessment district, for the Northside. Just like Fannie Mae, we must support Starbucks because of its importance in nurturing caffeine addicts. Plus, City Hall could add low income housing to the store, using the same idea of housing hotel and restaurant workers, thereby proving, once again, how egalitarian Santa Monica really is. Or maybe they could just reinstall that laun-dromat that Mr. Allen owned 50 years ago.”

“YES, I THINK THE STARBUCKS SHOULD close. Close them all. Especially the one on Colorado Avenue and 22nd Street. They should be fumigated, or replaced by Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. They have closed the one on Santa Monica Boulevard and 25th Street. It should be replaced by bringing back our Pioneer Chicken. Or, if they’re going to stay open, they should get coffee that tastes like coffee. Good luck to all the new stores, but I will never step foot in any of them. I don’t like them because the people who work there are not very polite and they don’t make you feel comfortable.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 26, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072608.pdf?ref=smdp.com)