The stores were required to be shut down. The employees were required to attend some nonsensical leftist bent training. It does not mater what required all this, it is the customers, employees and investors that will pay.

The timing would have been fine if they hadn't caved to rubbish political correctness, but I get your point, MrS. If I thought that Starbucks management had any real philosophical integrity, I'd have concluded this was a pointed,intentional lesson in economics to the pc people who frequent Starbucks. There is a price to the foolishness that Starbucks' clientele feel is more important than Starbucks' product.

I see firsthand how the “China” effect has cut costs for manufacturers and retailers. My small company buys 80% of materials from China now and has kept our price increases to a bare minimum for the last 11 years as a result. This year we have reached the limit of switching our purchases from China. Now, we will have price increases.

I suspect this China effect has run its course overall, and we will see inflation roaring back from now on. It’s already happened in imany industries such as autos and homes and home grown goods

We are looking now to get rid of employees thru more automation and having Chinese workers do more assembly for us.

When the Chinese stop taking our depreciating paper money and raise their prices, the jig will be up and our costs will go up to where they should have been.

When that happens, we will be forced out of business and our 10 employees will be out of work