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Genuine question: Is there any evidence that Starbucks 'created' more jobs than it 'destroyed' through competition? I.e. It's not as if there weren't thousands of people working for coffee/tea shops before Starbucks came along.

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I'd argue they brought coffee culture more to the British high-street. Coffee shops were few and far between and the demand was fairly low say 10 years ago.

This also coincides with a lot of pub closures due to certain government regulations and increased taxes on alcohol.

I get the impression there were simply a lot fewer coffee/tea shops (a greater proportion of high street space was taken up by now-bankrupt retail, Woolworths and HMV and Borders). And the quality of the coffee was certainly worse.

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