Free coffee in Troy leaves bitter taste
TROY -- Controversy percolated around the city's fourth annual River Street Festival Thursday when some local coffee shop owners found out Starbucks will hand out samples of its iced coffee drinks.Grammy award winners They Might Be Giants will headline the free arts and music festival Saturday that city officials see as promoting a downtown renaissance. They weren't counting on an uproar over iced coffee.
Nicholas Porsia, owner of Spill'n The Beans at 13 Third St., said he and the other shop owners see Starbucks' presence as undercutting Mayor Harry Tutunjian's message that he supports small locally owned businesses downtown.
Starbucks has no locations in the city, local merchants said.
"They want to support small businesses and entrepreneurs. I can't believe it," Porsia said. "Why didn't anybody have the presence of mind to say 'We've got six coffee shops in town. Why wouldn't they want to do it?' "
Free cold drinks will reduce business at the local coffee shops, Porsia said.
The city put out requests for festival participants six months ago, said Jeff Buell, a Tutunjian spokesman. He said Starbucks is a sponsor of the arts and music event which is why they can distribute free samples of their product. The amount that Starbucks contributed to the festival was not immediately available, he said.
The Times Union also is one of 10 sponsors of the River Street Festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.
"The idea of a festival is to bring tens of thousands of people to downtown not for one day but so they come back again and again," Buell said.
The coffee shop owners realize nothing can be done two days before the festival is held, Porsia said. Perhaps, he said, the city could put up signs or hand out fliers about businesses that are nearby and open.
Last year, Buell said, an effort was made to get businesses to participate in a distribution of fliers, but there was little interest.
Thursday, city Public Works Department workers prepared River Street from City Hall at Monument Square to Congress Street for the annual festival.
Source: Times Union
brewed on Jun 15th, 2007
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