Madeleine Acey, Enterprise Editor, Times Online, November 27, 2006 Academic warns American chain that customers will go elsewhere if it places profit before ethics Starbucks was accused yesterday of “playing Russian roulette” with its brand as a row over prices for Ethiopian coffee farmers intensified. (Pic: Christian Aid) As an Oxford academic lambasted the American coffee shops chain, Jim Donald, Starbucks’ chief executive, was preparing to visit Ethiopia tomorrow for talks with Meles Zenawi, its Prime Minister, The Times has learnt. Douglas Holt, the L’Oréal Professor of Marketing at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, accused Starbucks of hypocrisy and abuse of power and said that the company was in danger of damaging its name among its educated middle-class customers by opposing Addis Ababa’s attempts to trademark Ethiopia’s coffee varieties in the United States. The international coffee chain had worked hard to cultivate a progressive image, selling fair trade and “ethical”...