Starbucks abandons 2,000 of its employees in the Middle East.. Why did the activists celebrate?

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Video duration 03 minutes 24 seconds 03:24

Activists on platforms reacted to Starbucks' announcement that it would lay off two thousand of its employees, as a result of boycott campaigns that led to the company's market value falling by about $11 billion in just two months, according to a report by Newsweek magazine.

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Starbucks' denial of any relationship with Israel, as well as its denial of providing any financial support to the Israeli government and the occupation army, did not help in changing the position of customers boycotting its products in a large number of Arab and Islamic countries.

Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan announced last January that Israel's war on Gaza had harmed the company's business in the region, and said that "the boycott led to a decline in sales."

According to Newsweek, Alshaya Group, which owns the right to operate the Starbucks coffee chain in 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, announced that it was greatly affected by the boycott in all of its 1,900 branches, in which 19,000 employees work.

While Reuters reported that the boycott caused Alshaya Group to announce its intention to lay off 2,000 employees at Starbucks cafes, which represents 10% of the total number of its workers.

Alshaya Group said in the statement, which was reported by international newspapers, “As a result of the ongoing difficult business conditions over the past six months, we have taken an unfortunate and very difficult decision to reduce the number of associates in Starbucks cafes in the Middle East and North Africa.”

Economic reports indicated that the price of Starbucks shares on the American Nasdaq index fell by 14.9%, as the share price in mid-November was equal to $107.21, and now its price has fallen to $91.22.

Today's episode, 3/6/2024, of the "Shabakat" program reviewed the most prominent activists' tweets on the platforms regarding Starbucks' announcement of the layoff of two thousand employees, which unanimously agreed on the effectiveness of the boycott weapon and the necessity of continuing it against companies that support the Israeli occupation.

Effective weapon

The owner of the account, Mounir Al-Khatir, commented alive with a tweet that said, “Whoever still clings to the weakest faith and is still boycotting, his boycott will lose the major entities that support Israel,” and he completed his tweet with advice, “Don’t let anyone laugh at you and tell you that your boycott will not make a difference, because it broke up McDonald’s last week. I shouted, And today (and today) Starbucks after the boycott campaigns.”

As for Ihssan El Mahdawi, he noted that Starbucks is trying to sympathize with the public, and said, “For the two thousand lost jobs, thousands of other jobs have been created by supporting national products. Do not try to sympathize with the people.”

For his part, activist Rashid tweeted, addressing the boycotting individual, “that he is free and boycotting is not forbidden,” and he completed his tweet by explaining, “but morally and humanely, the simplest things are that you boycott, dispense with, and react even if 1% can affect this entity.”

Activist Ibrahim Sharif considered the Starbucks announcement as further evidence of the effectiveness of the boycott, noting that Starbucks is reducing its operations in the Arab region, calling for “to make the boycott a way of life so that our actions are consistent with our principles, and so that we are not slaves to what we consume.”

For his part, the account holder, Ashraf, pointed out the need to stay away from international brands, and tweeted that this “has become an urgent necessity to preserve health, support the local economy, and reduce the leakage of money abroad.”

The repercussions of the Starbucks boycott were not limited to its branches in the Middle East only, but the chain was affected in Malaysia, with its sales declining by 38% during the past six months, and the shares of the company that runs the chain’s cafes in Malaysia also fell by 20% since the seventh of last October. According to reports.