Starbuck

[Archangel M]

Caffine trumps politics I guess.

 

[Blindside]

I find this statement amusing, because around here the complaints about Starbucks tend to come from the effete lefties. The song usually goes, "Starbucks is a capitalist parasite that moves in and sucks the business away from local cafes who support a rich and vibrant artistic community, and sell beans raised in slave-labor conditions unlike [local cafe] who supports organic fair-rate growers who look vaguely like Che and yadda yadda yadda..."

It's fun to watch lefties eat their own. Especially while sipping a hot cup of Starbucks coffee.

Starbucks made the market for snobby locally owned cafes in most of the US.

 

[thardey]

I was spending a few months in So. Cal. just as Starbucks was beginning it's rise, and they were still sorting things out.

Behind the counter was a couple of very young, very fashionable young ladies who appeared incredibly naive. I went up to the counter and ordered coffee. That's it. No latte, or espresso, or whatnot. She said "what kind of coffee?"

I said, "regular coffee. Do you have any?" She gave a disdainful sigh and indicated the menu board behind her, as if you say "It's all coffee, Dumbass, pick one."

So I tried a different tack: "Do you know 'Juan Valdez?', I'm looking for some of that." Then the light bulb came on. "Oh! It's self-serve over by the door - What size?"

Apparently so few people ordered the stuff that they just made a pot in the morning, left it by the door and dumped it out at night.

 

[jim777]

I had a business trip to Chicago about 10 years ago and the only coffee I could find there was the Starbucks across from my hotel. On Monday I got it and hated it, but it was coffee so what'cha gonna do? Tuesday I still hated it, and by Wednesday it sort of just tasted like coffee. Not great, not terrible anymore, just coffee. By Thursday evening I was looking forward to it and actually got a bit panicky on Friday and bought a few pounds to bring home with me (I had no idea where the nearest Stabucks was back then).
Now, we buy the 2 pound bags of french Roast at BJs or Sams Club or wherever and make it ourselves at home. I don't get my Starbucks at Starbucks because it's just too much money, but it is the only kind I've brewed at home since '96 or so. It is really Starbucks or nothing for me at this point, I can't drink regular coffee anymore.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I was at the Great Wall at Badaling in China and I was looking at the old buildings and there….RIGHT in the middle of them was this nasty looking STARBUCKS. :duh:

YES I know it was there because foreigners, such as me, want coffee from Starbucks and it is likely they are making large sums of money there… but to me it was…

Hmmm … a Starbucks….. Isn’t that nice…BUT ITS WRONG!!!!! :cuss:

I’m sorry, I am at the Great Wall to try and forget about the West for a second and pursue one of my interests Chinese history and NOT get horrible over priced coffee from Starbucks. Priced so DAMN high in China that it is likely your average Chinese person CAN’T afford it or wouldn’t want to pay the price for it EVEN WHEN THEY CAN.:ticked:

Yeah that was a rant without warning but I needed to get that out.

Sorry

 

[jim777]

I was at the Great Wall at Badaling in China and I was looking at the old buildings and there….RIGHT in the middle of them was this nasty looking STARBUCKS. :duh:

YES I know it was there because foreigners, such as me, want coffee from Starbucks and it is likely they are making large sums of money there… but to me it was…

Hmmm … a Starbucks….. Isn’t that nice…BUT ITS WRONG!!!!! :cuss:

I’m sorry, I am at the Great Wall to try and forget about the West for a second and pursue one of my interests Chinese history and NOT get horrible over priced coffee from Starbucks. Priced so DAMN high in China that it is likely your average Chinese person CAN’T afford it or wouldn’t want to pay the price for it EVEN WHEN THEY CAN.:ticked:

Yeah that was a rant without warning but I needed to get that out.

Sorry

Well, it was there because the Chinese Government bid out the spot. So if not Starbucks, it would have been McDonalds or KFC/Taco Bell/Burger King or something else. It's not as if "if not for Starbucks" that particular spot would have been empty but for the dirt and indigenous rocks. Once the Chinese decided to lease that spot of land to the highest Western bidder it was just a matter of who coughed up the cash.
Be thankful you saw it now, when there were still only a handful of horribly out of place capital opportunities, and not the 100's or 1000's that will surely be there in 50 years.

jim

 

[CoryKS]

I’m sorry, I am at the Great Wall to try and forget about the West for a second and pursue one of my interests Chinese history and NOT get horrible over priced coffee from Starbucks. Priced so DAMN high in China that it is likely your average Chinese person CAN’T afford it or wouldn’t want to pay the price for it EVEN WHEN THEY CAN.

Kinda hard to do, what with all the cars and lightbulbs and stuff, eh?

 

[Xue Sheng]

Well, it was there because the Chinese Government bid out the spot. So if not Starbucks, it would have been McDonalds or KFC/Taco Bell/Burger King or something else. It's not as if "if not for Starbucks" that particular spot would have been empty but for the dirt and indigenous rocks. Once the Chinese decided to lease that spot of land to the highest Western bidder it was just a matter of who coughed up the cash.
Be thankful you saw it now, when there were still only a handful of horribly out of place capital opportunities, and not the 100's or 1000's that will surely be there in 50 years.

jim

I am fully aware of this, but you see I didn't much like starbucks before I got there so any one of those, save a 3 story high golden arches, would probably have been less annoying to me. But then there are the Starbucks prices that annoy me too

Kinda hard to do, what with all the cars and lightbulbs and stuff, eh?

Actually in the location it was and it was daylight so no, it would not have been that hard at all. And it would not have been that hard if they had made ANY attempt to ACTUALLY fit in.

If they put it next to the parking lot who cares, I did not mind the fact that there were 2 hump camel rides available even though they were really indigenous to the area and the massive array of high pressure vendors did not bother me either it is just a Starbucks thing.

And when you get to the wall you have 2 options the easy, full of tourist’s way to go (to the right if you are facing the wall or the harder MUCH less full of tourists way that I took.

Basically I am MORE than willing to admit if it were any other American food Icon I would have been less annoyed IF for no other reason the ones that jim listed, that are in China, charge considerably LESS for what they sell there. Where Starbucks charges EXACTLY the same as they do here, Multiply your latte price by 8 (at the time I was there) and you get that price in Yuan. That is more than a BIT pricy in China.

Ahh but then the next time I will go to the section of the wall tourist don't and I will likely be much happier... it may mean I will have to go without a latte but then WHO CARES!!!

 

[Cryozombie]

Disliking Starbucks could also be a product of simply not liking their coffee. I don't frequent coffee shops at all (or VERY infrequently). When I do buy coffee in a store it's at the local Sheetz while I'm on the road. As a general rule I brew a pot and carry a thermos to work.

OMG, I miss Sheetz soooo much... I could LIVE on those hamburgers on a pretzel they sell... seriously.

I drink starbucks, because its about the only thing around... if I were in the Colorado area Id be drinkin THIS

because it consistantly beats Starbucks coffee hands down in tri-state taste tests... and because my Uncle owns the company. LOL.

 

[rabbit]

I wouldn't be suprised if starbucks puts some hidden addicting substance in their coffee that gets you addicted after a week of drinking their coffee.

 

[Blindside]

I wouldn't be suprised if starbucks puts some hidden addicting substance in their coffee that gets you addicted after a week of drinking their coffee.

I think it is called caffeine. I recently found out that the caffeine that is extracted during the decaffeination process is then sold to soda and pharmaceutical companies.

 

[rabbit]

Whatever it is it gives me mojo.

 

[newGuy12]

OMG, I miss Sheetz soooo much... I could LIVE on those hamburgers on a pretzel they sell... seriously.

I drink starbucks, because its about the only thing around... if I were in the Colorado area Id be drinkin THIS

because it consistantly beats Starbucks coffee hands down in tri-state taste tests... and because my Uncle owns the company. LOL.

YES! That is so cool! That's what a real coffee house is like! In my city, we have many such cool coffee houses. The favourite of mine is:
http://www.heinebroscoffee.com/

I love it so much, and yes, it freaking SMOKES Star-sucks! Yes! It EATS THEM FOR LUNCH!

Why would I go to a Starbucks, where everyone is in some kind of DORKY uniform, listening to some music that some puke in some corporate office decides that is going to be played, with the SAME CRAP cookie-cutter decorations?

Ah! That makes me sick!!!

Now, this favorite coffee house of mine, you should see it! The young people there are much like hippies. They have dread lock hair and some kinds of piercings and tattoos and such. No uniforms!

You walk in, they have some strange music playing, that is interesting. I see many neat people there. No one hassles me for associating with the access point for internet access, no. Just hop on. Hehe -- it is unencrypted, but that is okay, because I build my own tunnel! Hahaa!

And such "beautiful people" around, very fancy. I get my plastic cup (the one they sell -- you get coffee cheaper if you use this re-usable cup). I get my Half and half and my sweetener in there, and the kids say, "Oh, you want a coffee of the day?" They all know me. I go there enough.

Once, I took a pizza in there and told them, "Here, here is a lunch", ahahahaha! You would have thought I hung the moon.

Oh, that is part of a good life, to tell a friend, "Hey, let's get together and catch up on things, you meet me at the coffee house". Good times!

That sorry Starbucks can GET OUT OF MY CITY! I do not like their ways, no matter what coffee they sell. If I am a snob, then, yes, I admit it. I have no love for that company. None.

 

[newGuy12]

Also, it is the perfect way to kick off (or end) and evening. That's right. Let's get a group of people up and <go_to_a_movie | go_bowling | whatever>. We will meet each other at the coffee house, and the proceed.

If you have to wait, no problem, lay way back, get jacked up on some coffee! w00!

Then, you go and do whatever.

People say it is expensive, but compare this cost to drinking alcohol in a bar, and you will then see it is cheap!