DEARBORN – Starbucks cafés in the Dearborn area are witnessing an unprecedented decline in customers’ demand for the chain’s most famous products, just as they are elsewhere in the U.S and around the world. This decline comes in conjunction with continuing campaigns on social media platforms to boycott the company, which is accused of supporting Israel as it continues its brutal war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for the sixth consecutive month.

Starbucks, which owns more than 35,000 branches in 86 countries, including more than 9,000 branches in America, was severely affected by spontaneous and organized boycott campaigns in protest against the famous brand’s vocal support for the Israeli occupation army. The recent boycott efforts resulted in laying off more than 2,000 employees in the company’s cafes in the Middle East region.

Many Starbucks customers have stopped going to its local cafés spread throughout the Metro Detroit area, which includes several locations in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, where Arab Americans are heavily concentrated, in addition to several locations in neighboring cities such as Detroit, Livonia and Allen Park, among others. Disenchanted customers decided to join the boycott and stop buying their favorite drinks from the popular cafés and turned to alternative ones that have recently spread widely throughout the area and provide popular Yemeni coffee, drinks and sweets.

A former customer of Palestinian origin named Hazem told The Arab American News that he was finally “liberated” from the burden of his daily walk to get a large cup of Starbucks coffee that he had been buying for more than two decades.

“I stopped going to Starbucks after I realized the size of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip,” Hazem said. “I started to feel ashamed in the first days, but after a short time I decided to stop drinking their coffee completely, even if it would revive my spirit.

“Every dollar paid to Starbucks here, a portion of it goes to support the killing of innocent children and women in occupied Palestine, and the least we can do is not contribute to financing this genocide that is receiving unprecedented global condemnation,” he added, pointing out that the widespread boycott campaign against the chain as a result of the Israeli war on Gaza achieved a great success and Starbucks has suffered huge losses since October 7.

Hazem pointed out that the boycott campaigns against the chain began in 2014, but it didn’t attain any significant success due to the scarcity of social facilities in the areas where Arab Americans are concentrated, noting that the situation has changed over the last decade and specially in recent years, “with the presence of many Yemeni cafés”, whose coffee was described as “better tasting” and whose prices were much more “reasonable.”

One worker at a Starbucks café in the Dearborn area who asked not to be identified, for fear of reprisal, said the branch where she worked for more than 10 years was suffering a significant decline in business. “The café was always crowded, and customers were waiting in line for half an hour sometimes. but the situation has recently declined significantly.”

Hussein, a former Starbucks customer of Lebanese origin, described his boycott of Starbucks products, praising, in a humor-mixed way, the painful sacrifices of the Palestinians, which was the reason for “his recovery from addiction to Starbucks coffee.”

Hussein, who works at a gas station in the Detroit area, said his days used to start at 6 a.m. with a stop at Starbucks to “buy my favorite cup of coffee.

“But I stopped that, because of the amount of pain I felt while watching videos on social media of the killing and destruction in Gaza is unimaginable,” he said.

“These cafés make huge profits in the cities in which we live in, but they do not contribute anything from their profit to help the communities they make their money from, as is the case of many businesses in the area that respect themselves and their customers,” he added. “We do not want them to return the favor to our community. We want them to have some feelings and respect the community they serve and stop supporting the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

“Ordinary Americans who have no relationship with Palestine are boycotting Starbucks, but unfortunately some Arabs and Muslims in our cities continue to patronize these cafés.”

The Starbucks workers union in the United States condemned all forms of occupation, displacement and apartheid, as well as the genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip at the hands of their Israeli occupiers, which prompted the Starbucks chain to file a complaint before the federal court in southern Iowa, claiming that the union’s position doesn’t represent Starbucks and it harms its interests.

One worker at a Starbucks café in the Dearborn area who asked not to be identified, for fear of reprisal, said the branch where she worked for more than 10 years was suffering a significant decline in business.

“The café was always crowded, and customers were waiting in line for half an hour sometimes. but the situation has recently declined significantly.”

She said she was moved to a different location in the area due to the reduction in working hours and the change in the program for employees, “most of whom feel dissatisfied.” She also said two of her colleagues have left their job for good.

As for Hussein, who had been addicted to Starbucks coffee for years, he stopped buying his favorite drink and decided to brew his coffee at home.

“About a month ago, I made the decision to stop going to Starbucks, which was a a daily stop for me,” he said. “I bought a very good coffee machine and I started buying premium Colombian coffee, because I could no longer bear to go to Starbucks.

“I have made a final decision to stop dealing with all brands that support the Israeli occupation, not just Starbucks.”