In all honesty, there are some local chains in SF that charge a lot more than Starbucks. This one place charges two bucks and change just for a large coffee. Back where I grew up in PA, we had no real local coffee shops, so when a Starbucks finally came to town, we were happy to have somewhere to go when we were underage. Yes, it is true that they often practice Wal-Mart like aggression, moving in and saturating the market, forcing out smaller businesses... but coffee shops usually have loyal followings, and I've seen as many people loyal to Starbucks as are loyal to mom'n pops. Overall, I don't see a net negative for Starbucks existing, and they do bring a lot of attention to the plight of coffee farming.
And, as with any business... if you don't like or don't want to pay for the product, go elsewhere. No worries either way.
They just did a major restructuring (closing down many, many stores, etc.) and this cost a lot of money. Basically, this is a one time hit, and if you remove the associated costs, their profit is down 10-15%... not good, but not as bad as it seems outright. Next quarter should see them return to more profitability, but it's still gonna be down from years past. But, still, even with all these costs, they still turned a meager 3% profit... which is better than going underwater.
And, as with any business... if you don't like or don't want to pay for the product, go elsewhere. No worries either way.