The Flaw in the Save Folgers KC Movement

A recent discussion of Saving the Folgers plant in Kansas City reminds me of a Seinfeld episode.

As someone who, up to this point has declined to “wear the ribbon” of Saving Folgers in Kansas City, might make those who do scratch their head a bit and wonder why not? Doesn’t Vince care about jobs? Does he hate coffee? Families will suffer because of this, Vince, aren’t you aware?

Vince, wear the ribbon. If you don’t, you just don’t care.

If anyone is interested I will explain why, to this point, I have declined to wear the ribbon. I view it as an opportunity to talk philosophically about something I care about and also help my readers notice something that they might previously have not seen before.

A metaphor was used with regard to this situation. It has been said that this situation, while on a much smaller scale, is similar to the situation in Haiti. I’ll bite my tongue a bit but am happy to use a different metaphor in which we now have more information and see if its valid.

We live in a world in which forces act without concern for human beings. Weather is a perfect example. Case in point, in 2005 South Louisiana endured one of the deadliest hurricanes ever to reach American soil. 1800 people lost their lives, businesses were overrun and thousands were displaced and homeless. The suffering was highlighted and enhanced by the interpretation that the US, state and local government response was largely neglectful and incompetent.

People took to the blogosphere and traditional airwaves to denounce the government efforts. Petitions were drawn for the victims. Because of the widespread criticism, the numerous breakdowns experienced, and the lack of satisfaction produced by its citizenry, FEMA is challenged with, according to the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace within Stanford University, to:

transform itself from a civil defense agency into a natural disasters agency.

It may be a challenge but at least they have the power to take action because of the criticism.

For background’s sake, it is interesting and obvious to note that no one protested or aired any grievance at the hurricane itself that actually caused the destruction. Why? Because hurricanes don’t care what humans think. As humans, we know it does no good to scream at weather. That’s why we blame the weatherman.

In the movement to Save Folgers in Kansas City, there are also forces at work that we have no control of.

We live in a global marketplace. This marketplace has grown exponentially in the Internet age. Manufacturing, programming, call center and other jobs that can be shipped remotely, typically are. As such, salaries for these types of jobs have become priced by overseas talent. Companies, not just big companies, but EVERY company is looking to operate as efficiently as possible. The commoditization of labor is a real problem for laborers who seek to earn a living and live a good life.

Because the cost of labor is plummeting, it poses a different set of challenges for large companies. Small companies can now compete with large companies for profits that were once unheard of. Micro-breweries are competing with larger beer distributorships. Boutique businesses can impact the bottom lines of Enterprise-size companies. To further illustrate, 11.9M viewers saw the last episode of The Sopranos. To date, 55M viewers have seen David After Dentist. The Internet age is a threat large companies must deal with.

Large businesses for the first time, because of the Internet age, see smaller businesses as huge threat in their industry. Folgers might not admit it, but it is scared to death of companies like The Roasterie. Every one of them are eating at the profits companies like Folgers used to enjoy.

At first glance, it might look like Folgers is the big bad corporation hopping on board the bandwagon to screw the American worker. In truth, the American worker is screwed by the global marketplace. But even that’s not true.

The global marketplace doesn’t care about the American or the Kansas City worker. It is indifferent because both the American and Kansas City worker can’t provide any marginal utility over a worker in Mexico, Brazil or, in the case of Folgers, New Orleans. In many ways, Kansas Citians could think fondly that these jobs aren’t headed overseas. I speculate that they could very easily.

The global marketplace is why you can search on any topic in the world and come up with a result. It is why knowledge is at a premium and hard work is at its all time low. It is why profits from the Roasterie have grown every year since 1993.

The flaw in the Save Folgers KC movement? Delicious aromas will still exist, they are just moving to a different neighborhood. Folgers isn’t the first company to lay off an American or Kansas City worker and they won’t be the last. Folgers isn’t doing so because they have no heart. They simply decided to operate more efficiently as a response to their owners — the shareholders of Smuckers Inc. If you were CEO, you might choose a different plant to close but, no doubt, you’d have to choose one.

To protest the Folgers plant leaving Kansas City is like protesting against Hurricane Katrina. It provides no benefit. Forces, like the global marketplace, and other laws of physics, exist without concern for humanity.

I have no suggestions over what you should protest instead. Maybe you can go to one of our lovely coffee shops in Kansas City and think about it for awhile.

Or . . .

Maybe you would like to make the world a better place. If so, I have a cause that I would like to talk to you about.

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