Percolating debate in wake of Seattle's Best expansion

Here's a Labor Day Weekend conundrum for you: Starbucks Corp. sent out a press release trumpeting its expansion of Seattle's Best Coffee outlets to 30,000 this week. There were just 3,000 six months ago.

At the same time, Starbucks has been listed as one of the country's biggest dispensers of layoffs during the recession. Daily Finance put the number at 21,316 since December 2007, but the Seattle Times' Melissa Allison, who covers coffee like TMZ tracks Lindsay Lohan, said SEC filings show Starbucks job losses of 32,000 in the U.S. between September 2008 and September 2009 alone.

So pink slips rain like espresso through a torn filter and yet Starbucks sees fit to expand one of its brands. It should be the company's moral imperative to rehire some of those it jettisoned. Somebody is needed to deliver the grind and maintain the brewing machinery at the Subway, Burger King and AMC Theater venues that account for the quick ascent to 30,000. That somebody should be a former employee.