‘That should have never happened’: Gee says Katie Wilson’s Starbucks comment was wrong for a city leader

As Starbucks announced plans to move or hire 2,000 workers at its new Nashville office, KIRO host Gee Scott believes Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s anti-Starbucks comments didn’t help, and may have played a role in pushing them out.

On “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, Gee pointed to Wilson’s comment at a barista picket outside the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in November.

“I’m not buying Starbucks and neither should you,” Wilson said, according to The Seattle Times.

Gee said he’s not blaming Wilson for Starbucks leaving Seattle, but said a conversation should have happened indoors.

“I’m not saying that the mayor of Seattle is the reason that Starbucks is doing this. I’m saying that there should have been a grown-up discussion and conversation,” he said. “The comment about, ‘I’m not buying Starbucks, and neither should you,’ should have never happened. That should have never happened with the leader.”

Starbucks has other options

Gee noted there are other cities looking particularly favorable to businesses, such as Bellevue, Nashville, and Austin. He compared Seattle’s treatment of businesses to a bad relationship.

“Think about the conversations,” he said. “Sometimes when you are in a relationship, and some of you maybe have been in a relationship where you could not afford to move, and somebody just talked bad to you any kind of way, or you’re at a job where you have to constantly come in and you don’t feel appreciated, but you don’t have another job or other options, so you have to stick it out in that job. You have to be careful the way you talk to somebody that actually has an opportunity to leave.”

KIRO host Ursula Reutin added that high taxes are pushing Seattle businesses toward other cities that are actively competing for them.

“There are other cities that are waking up, or have woken up, and have said, ‘Hey, we’re going to compete for this business,'” she said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.