Starbucks Windows Smashed Four Times -- Coffee Giant Comes Under Siege In Portland, Maine

PORTLAND, Maine - Some people must really be steamed at the Starbucks coffee shop in Portland's harborfront neighborhood of old brick buildings.

The big windows at the Starbucks in the city's Old Port section have been smashed four times in five weeks in what may be a protest against the corporate giant and its coast-to-coast uniformity.

Now the windows are boarded up, and surveillance cameras will be installed inside and out.

"It looks like a war zone," said Police Chief Michael Chitwood. "I can't remember any time in recent history where one location received so much aggravated criminal vandalism."

Never before has the coffee giant been treated so badly, not even when a grand opening was greeted by protesters in Madison, Wis., and a petition drive was launched to shut down a shop in Larchmont, N.Y.

Many see Starbucks as a big business turning small-town America into a generic landscape of chain stores. Critics also fear Starbucks will snuff out the independent coffeehouses in Old Port, a neighborhood of boutiques, art galleries and restaurants in buildings that date to the late 1800s.

For that reason, Amy Therberge would never set foot in Starbucks.

"I want to support local businesses," the coffee-loving Simmons College student says outside Java Joe's, a locally owned coffeehouse down the street.

Joseph Boskin, director of urban and public policy at Boston University, says the backlash may be greater in older, established cities on the East Coast, where there is resentment when mom-and-pop stores are replaced by corporate chains.

Starbucks began in 1971 in Seattle as a single store. By 1996, there were 1,115 stores. The company's goal is to own 2,000 stores in the United States by next year. It also has stores in Asia, Europe and Canada.

In the past year alone, three Starbucks stores have come to the Portland area - two downtown and one at the Maine Mall. The Old Port store opened a year ago.

For all the anti-corporate talk, the Old Port Starbucks is hugely profitable and not a bad neighbor. It offers decent wages, health and dental benefits and stock options. It also participates in community charity events.

"We have a great respect for the community that we go into," said Alan Gulick, Starbucks spokesman in Seattle.

The police chief says Starbucks is being targeted, but he is not convinced there is a sinister attempt to drive the company away. More likely, the late-night attacks are spur-of-the-moment and driven by alcohol, he says.

One person was arrested in the first attack and pleaded guilty to criminal mischief for throwing a bottle through the Starbucks window after he left a neighboring bar.

Instead of lamenting the corporate intrusion, people writing letters to the editor are praising Starbucks.

"It makes me sick to see this stuff," said Leslie Gostley. "I support Starbucks even more since this happened."