The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Coffee Wars -- And What They Say About Our Times

Episode Date: June 10, 2020

Starbucks is closing stores while Dunkin's is hiring and offering quite the twist.And a lot more in today's podcast for you to think about!

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily coffee wars that's what i'm gonna start talking about here. Coffee Wars. You may well ask, Mansbridge, what has that really got to do with anything right now that you normally talk about? Well, actually, it's got a lot to do with COVID-19. There were a couple of announcements today. I find them really interesting.

Starbucks, one of the big coffee makers. I mean, first of all, coffee wars in our country are pretty straightforward, right? It's kind of either Starbucks or Timmy's or your local favorite kind of coffee place. Timmy's is not involved in this story today. So Starbucks is one. Starbucks announced today it's closing 400 locations across North America.

And it puts the finger on COVID-19 as the reason, saying that they're looking at losing $3 billion in the third quarter of this year. We haven't even reached the third quarter yet. But they figure it's going to cost them $3 billion in the third quarter. Well, that's a big chunk of change, and obviously you have to adapt. 400 closings. What's odd is they're going to close 200 in the States and 200 in Canada. It's not like 200 in the States, it's not the same as 200 in Canada. 200 locations in Canada, that's a lot of locations.

But they have a much bigger base in the U.S., obviously. But nevertheless, they've made these decisions, and they say, be careful how you read this because we actually close about 100 locations a year anyway because of lease arrangements where the locations are and we usually pop up with a new one within a block or so of that area. Well, if you're anything like me and you sort of drive around in major cities, it can be anywhere. It could be in Canada. It could be elsewhere.

You tend to see in the downtown core an awful lot of Starbucks, and they're usually pretty close to each other. Anyway, we're probably going to notice that there are a couple of hundred closing down in Canada if you go to Starbucks. I don't often. Occasionally, but not often. Anyway, why am I raising this? Well, here you have Starbucks doing what they're doing, which is retrenching. And then you look at another big coffee maker.

They sell more than just coffee, but so does Starbucks. Called Dunkin's. Right? It used to be Dunkin' Donuts. For some reason, they shortened the name to Dunkin's a year ago. Because, you know, they sell more than donuts, I guess, is part of the reason. But whatever. They're just called Dunkin's a year ago. Because, you know, they sell more than donuts, I guess, is part of the reason. But whatever.

They're just called Dunkin's now. They used to be all over North America. But they kind of shut down their operation in Canada a couple years ago. I think the last one was gone a year ago in Quebec. They never had a lot of Dunkin' Donuts or Dunkins, but they were kind of noticeable. But they're out of the Canadian market. But they're still very much in the U.S. market,

very much in the U.S. market. Now, what they do today, actually, I think it was yesterday, but nevertheless, they did it. Here's what they did in the coffee wars. That's my decision, actually, to call this issue a coffee wars. They announced they're hiring 25,000 new employees. I guess they figure reopening is going to work for them. 25,000 new employees.

That's a lot of people serving coffee and donuts and whatever else they sell at Dunkin's. But here's the twist. I like this. I mean, we'll have to see how well it works. But the twist that Dunkin's is offering, and maybe there's something in this, maybe there's something here that we should be listening to

in terms of a potential for other companies to offer the same kind of thing to employees either coming back to work for them who had been laid off or new employees in total. And these are in a certain kind of job area. But listen, a lot of people pass through fast food restaurants on their way to professional work life. So here's what Dunkin's is offering. They worked out a deal with a university in New Hampshire. And they're offering to these new employees free online university courses.

They'll pay for them. They'll arrange it in connection with this university in New Hampshire. I think it's great. On the face of it, right? I think it's great. Now, it doesn't do any good for young Canadians who are worried about how they're going to pay for university or even go to university. But maybe some Canadian companies will see the same thing,

see the same possibilities, see the same opportunities. Universities are almost certainly going to be online this fall, if not the whole year. Maybe there's something that can be worked out here. You know, in Harvey's, McDonald's, Timmy's. I know some of these are already connected with their own universities, but nevertheless, I think this is a heck of a good idea on the face of it. I don't know any more detail on what I've told you.

But it sounds good. It sounds promising. All right, topic two. This is interesting. The Financial Times. You know the Financial Times? London-based financial paper. It's reporting that China is rejecting the findings of a recent Harvard and Boston University study that found that the coronavirus may have already begun circulating in Wuhan,

that's that area of China where it all started, by the end of last summer in 2019. That's much earlier than most people had been suggesting, that it was November or December before it started. Now, China's rejecting this study. But here's what's interesting. What's interesting is how Harvard and Boston U did the study. And on the one hand, it's fascinating and kind of very new era.

On the other hand, it's kind of scary. Here's how they did the study. They analyzed satellite images of hospital car parks for one. Okay? So they got satellite images downloaded from whatever satellite, private or public, that managed to get right in on hospital parking lots in Wuhan. Okay? So they look at these images, and they find that last summer at the end of the summer

august early september parking lots were full and they've determined from that one area there's another one coming, that one area, hospital parking lots, that something was going on. A lot of people were going to the hospital in Wuhan late in the summer. Okay, well, so that could have been any number of things. However, there's a second part to this. they also managed to get information from the Baidu search engine. Apparently that's one of the popular search engines in China. About people who were asking questions in the late summer of 2019

about what certain symptoms they had could mean. And those symptoms, apparently, are similar to what then became known as the symptoms for COVID-19 to the rest of the world within another couple of months. So these two things together, parking lots and search engines results on queries about symptoms. Now, think about that for a minute.

What else could you determine from satellite images and questions and queries to search engines? I don't know. the possibilities are limitless. You know, as somebody who grew up in the early 60s, I can remember the first time we saw satellite images that were shown to us as, hey, this is happening. You've got to be ready because of what this could mean. You know what those satellite images were? Sure. Okay. I can tell those of you who are raising your hands, you know, you remember

October 1962, 13 days, the Cuban Missile Crisis. John Kennedy, who was president of the United States at the time, went on television and showed us images. Now, they weren't satellite images. They were images taken from a spy plane that was very high. U-2 spy planes fly at around, I think, 100,000 feet. So much higher than your normal kind of commercial airliner. So U-2 spy planes above Cuba,

you know, almost as high as satellites are, taking images of the Cuban landscape and seeing what they were convinced were new installations for missiles, nuclear capable. And that set the world on the edge of a nuclear holocaust. So that's the first time I remember images like that being shown. So this, in a way, is what Harvard and Boston U were doing. They were getting satellite images even a little higher than those U2s,

but they could come right down into a parking lot in a hospital in Wuhan. And it looked a lot more crowded than it usually was. Now, interesting study. That plus the study of queries to a search engine. Hey, we're living in a wild world, aren't we? Okay, topic three. I like this one, too. Topic three is kind of a question for all of us about how we get our news.

This was in The Guardian last week. And I've been thinking about it ever since I first read it, so I thought I'd sort of kind of toss it out there for you to think about too. Because I'm not drawing any big conclusions from this other than things are different than they used to be. Back in those early 60s and the 70s and the 80s and, you know, a good chunk of the 90s. As families, we all used to get our news from the same place. You know, it might be the morning newspaper.

Remember those? It might be, you know, the television newscast in the evening. But we'd kind of be there together. We'd be feeding off the same source. Well, Zoe Williams writes, I'm just going to read the first couple of sentences of her piece because I think it's intriguing and it gets you thinking. This is in The Guardian. Last week.

I suppose, though I couldn't swear to it, families used to sit around the TV together and watch the same news. Now we all get our news separately. Me from Twitter. The kids from TikTok. My mister from reputable radio and newspaper sources. It means we disregard each other totally. I honestly assume the young ones know nothing

except whatever can be conveyed about slime in 15 seconds or one minute. Those are the two time options for a TikTok. Everything Mr. Zed says, I tend to have read 24 minutes before. For his part, every time he looks over, I'm watching a video of a mischievous goad or driver and a cyclist having an argument, which he takes as a sign that I've given up on the world. The riots in the U.S. completely capsized all this. For the first two days, the 12s and under had a much more precise understanding of the whole thing, not just the details of George Floyd's death,

but the searing rage around it and the likely scale of the protests. A much different version than Zoe was getting on Twitter, or her husband was getting in more conventional ways. So what does this actually say about us as a society. And as this combined unit of those who care about what's going on around them, but we're all kind of getting it from different platforms that have a different take on things, that have different speed on getting at things, and that use a different determination about what's verifiable and what isn't. It's interesting. I know I've used that word a lot in tonight's podcast, but I think there are things for us to think about here and try to understand the implications of kind of the news delivery system that we now live with,

which is so much different than it was even a couple of years ago, but certainly different than what a lot of us grew up with. And I say that with respect. I know a lot of our listeners to the Bridge Daily are of an older generation, but not all of them. I get a lot of mail from young people who are focused on the different ways that they can achieve and get news. So I ask you to think about that for a bit, and if you have thoughts on it, let me know.

You know, send them along to the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com, the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. I want to hear from you on that. Now, I just have one other thing to mention, because it's been, you know, more than two weeks now since the terrible, brutal murder of George Floyd. Now, we have been conditioned as a society to deal with these moments of chaos. It could be, you know, the apparent wrongful death of somebody at the hands of police officers. Could be in Canada, could be in the United States. There could be a racial element to it.

We have seen many incidents of this happen over the years and followed by riots and then followed by calls for this or that action and then kind of it just disappears. We've seen the same kind of situation in mass shootings in the United States and the few that have happened in Canada where there's a great deal of discussion immediately around what happened and why it happened and what should change to make it not happen again. There are marches and protests and demands for action. And then it kind of stops. And we move on. So the question relationships with the police and minority communities,

whether it's in the United States or Canada or anywhere in the world? Because you've seen the protest movement has gone around the world and continues, even more than two weeks later, to be evident around the world and continues even more than two weeks later to be evident around the world. So is this different? Most people think it is, and they're already seeing some sense of change. That's what this whole issue about changing the way police forces are funded and operate. And you've seen some city councils already make determinations on that front.

But most of them saying they're going to look seriously at it, and they've formed committees, and they're having hearings. Major corporations making decisions about how they handle situations with minorities within their own company. So a lot of things are happening. So you say, well, why? Why this time does it appear, does it appear that it's different? There have been horrible instances in the past, and they're notfar-away past.

Why this time? Well, you know, part of it, part of it is COVID-19. Part of the success of the protest movement over the last 10 days especially has been that people are available. They've always been focused and concerned about this issue. But they've had jobs. They've been working. They're not at home. Here, there's been the opportunity to take part in something they wanted to do, have always wanted to do. And they're doing it in huge numbers. In the midst of a pandemic.

Now, there's been concern, and rightfully so, about what these huge crowds can mean as a result of a lack of social distancing, although, especially in the last few days, the protests I've watched, where there have been tens of thousands of people involved, there's also been social distancing and mask wearing. So, maybe that's got something to do with the success of the protest movement this time.

And the longer it goes on, and the harder it drives, the more likely that things will change. Because change so often comes from protest. Peaceful protest. And for the most part, that is what we have been seeing on a large scale in many cities across North America and around the world.

So, there you go. More than a few topics to think about there on this day. You have thoughts? As I said, don't be shy. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. You can also always go to my website, petermansbridge.com. All past podcasts are available through the website.

And also other news about upcoming books or book. It's there, so you can see all about it. All right. That's the Bridge Daily for this day. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thank you so much for listening, and you know it. I'll be back right here in 24 hours. Thank you.