Starbucks: How to avoid

It's not a good time for Starbucks. After it emerged that the company had paid less than £7m in tax since 1998, on sales of £3bn, the chain promised to make a couple of £10m payments to the Treasury over the next two years. this has done little to mollify observers angry at a business that seems to treat tax as an optional inconvenience, and whose first response to the negative publicity was cut paid lunchbreaks, maternity benefits and sick leave from its already low-paid workforce..
Where, then, for an alternative cup of high-street coffee? I visited a selection of chains in west London, and one independent, buying a cappuccino in each of them. It's worth pointing out that coffee, as the second most-traded commodity in the world, is frequently associated with the exploitation of the people who grow it. Customers who want genuinely ethical coffee will need to do their homework. As for the quality of the drink, that's rather easier to answer ...
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