It is very capitalist of the corporation to charge bigger fees to get others to help. They must be convinced of their influence, ethos, with their customers to get them to pay more. And why not? Water is a huge issue to everyone and Starbucks has really made an effort over the past five years to expand their customer base to have a broader appeal to the masses. It worked. Five years ago the average Starbucks consumer was white, upper middle class America, 78% had college degrees with an average annual income of $81,000. Now, just over half of Starbucks customers have a college degree, the younger 18-24 set grew 10% from 3% to 13% and numbers for persons of color more than doubled from 16% to 37%. The average consumer now has an annual income of much less, $55,000 (Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition). But lower income does not mean lower profits, Starbucks has consistently been growing expanding over the years.

Starbucks is a smart corporation. With their presence in America’s society they have tremendous influence people listen to. As a huge corporation they have the cash to hire slick PR firms to make them look even better. Ethos Water campaign is just such a move. It does good for the world and convinces the public that they are not a greedy corporation out for profit. Their actions say otherwise. If they truly wanted to help world issues why not take donations in the store as well? But if they did then the $1.80 bottle of water might be switched to a $1.24 and the different dropped into the box at least an estimated fifteen billion dollars in lost revenue from the bottled water campaign. Too bad there’s no Santa Claus. Starbucks would definitely make his naughty list this year.