Without getting into the whole union thing, they sugarcoat their benefits to employees. Nobody other than management works full time. An acquaintance of mine who worked at one until recently would sometimes have a closing shift, only to have to open at 5 the very next morning. Every week she got a different work schedule, so planning anything in advance with friends never worked, and after a year, her raise turned out to be less than 25 cents. And I have had corrobaration on this with other people at different Starbucks. Poppas point about NYC is true-I know because you were probably in my neighborhood with 4 or 5 of them within visual contact! I prefer to go anywhere else, and I think Dunkin DOnuts coffee is better anyway.