I like Starbucks coffee.
Have at me, internets.
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No one has ever asked me what syrup I want with my cappuccino or flat white - and Iâve been to about 40 different Starbucks all along the East Coast (Iâll go to an independent first, but they arenât as thick along the highway).
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Yeah. SB has a bad habit of keeping track of population / traffic density, and throwing up another one of their milkshake shops every time the numbers get past a certain threshold. This, plus the average Americanâs penchant for sugar and fat, put the traveling coffee fan at a distinct disadvantage.
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Well, theyâre a chain; thatâs how chain stores operate, indeed. But, again, their drip coffee is still their top selling item, so I wouldnât blame âmilkshakesâ for their popularity.
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Thanks for explaining consumerism. Itâs pretty hard to understand, growing up in America.
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I live in one of the rarest of neighbourhoods⌠a SB opened up a shop, and then less than four years later CLOSED it.
Which is ironic to me, as my area is gentrifying, just very slowly. And with the SB came an influx of new restos/retail, but I guess it wasnât enough and wasnât fast enough for SB so they left? Slow change in an old neighbourhood is good! And its still going on, we got our first hipster bar and now have 3! art galleries! SB was just too early, also they probably lost a bunch of money being right beside a giant highschool, they only drank the âmilkshakesâ, no one ever got actual coffee in that location.
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Systematically under-filling coffee, eh?
âRoom for cream?â
Look, you shouldnât need room for cream.
I did a âTiger Cruiseâ on an aircraft carrier once, and the Navy apparently gets free starbucks for the big boats. I dunno what was different about it, but it was fantastic. Not burnt at all, made strong as hell.
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I think this is very much the case; their profit margins on Frappucchinos and lattes are much slimmer than on drip coffee. And they dump and re-brew their coffee frequently, whether it sells or not, so if everyoneâs getting stuff made from pre-mixed cream base syrup things, theyâre not doing so well. I have two high-school age nephews and they and their friends call themselves âStarbucks addictsâ, but none of them get coffee â they all get the âcream Frappsâ, which are literally just milkshakes with no caffeine or espresso in them at all. I have no idea how they all stay so damn skinny!
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Well mine walks just about a mile to and from school, and it is a really big elevation drop. I have gone from snow to rain and back taking the kid to school in the car on occasion.
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Itâll come back to bite them, either in a couple of years, or in about 25. Like it does for many of us. Middle age spread is a bitch.
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That happened in downtown Missoula. People stuck with the local coffee shop on the same block. Thereâs a local food economy there, and SBâs corporate notoriety worked against it.
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I told my 17-year old nephew exactly that as he enjoyed his second venti-sized caramel-fudge-whipped cream-milkshake frapp of the day while mocking my black iced coffee. I remember what having a magical teenage metabolism was like, and like him, I didnât believe grownups when they told me it wouldnât last forever!
The irony is that SB is actually awesome to their employees. My sister worked there for a few years in high school/college, and itâs the only chain I know of that gives full health benefits to part-time employees. When the neighborhood Starbucks closed and an indie coffeeshop moved in and hired everyone back, she didnât last long, because her benefits and pay took a huge hit.
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Employee compensation was their pitch actually and a reason Mayor Engen expressed support for SB at the time. The public discussion engaged more Missoulians than the mayor expected. People wondered if they would have succeeded if they were fully employee owned and favored that model.
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Well, Starbucks had/has a Support Our Troops promotion, which I assumed went to the troops abroad. The Navy may have gotten theirs this way. However, the Pentagon is known for supplying their ships with better food as a bonus for being deployed on a ship in tight quarters for months at a time. I seem to remember a NY Times article from over ten years ago about training their submarine chefs with top-tier restaurants in NY. Just a perk for being enclosed in a cylinder under water for weeks at a time.
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When Target tried to enter Canada (haha nope) they put Starbucks in their stores. The manager of the SB near my office got loaned out to Target to manage the set up and training and opening of all of the SB in the new Target shops. Target liked him so much they tried to hire him away from SB. But failed. Because a) the benefits were not as good at what he was getting, and b) heâd been at SB for over a decade, he got 6 weeks paid vacation a year, and with his crazy OT it was actually more like 12 weeks. Target only gives two weeks vacation. Ever. Period. âeven the CEOâ only gets two weeks vacation. And they donât do paid over time. And they would not budge. They kept offering him more money for salary and he said they seemed really confused when he kept saying no, he wanted vacation time instead. So he stayed with SB, and Target ultimately failed in Canada and left. SB 1, Target 0. 
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Iâve done the Maxwell House âclassicâ instant coffee while hiking, once. Once. My cousin mixed it double-strength on accident, and we both drank the result because reasons. He puked it up about ten minutes later, but I held mine down like the stalwart non-puker that I am. I learned then that instant coffee might be instant, but itâs not really coffee.
Same (I recommend the Charm City blend, but anything they brew is okay with me). My favorite diner still makes their own shitty coffee, but I donât go there for the coffee.
Um.
Iâd never messed with coffee while hiking until my cousin brought along that horrid instant stuff. What youâre describing sounds pretty tasty.
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The U.S. seems to be very good at exporting certain aspects of U.S. culture. Their labor practices are not one of them.
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The key is knowing which Starbucks have the Clover. Go here, enter your local zip code or city, and check the âStarbucks Reserveâ box.
Where there are no nearby independent coffee shops, these are the ones to rely on.
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This is actually a weird problem Starbucks has that they still havenât ironed out; my sister dealt with somewhat the same thing. The âStarbucksâ that are inside Target, Kroger, many airports and even some malls sell Starbucks coffee, Starbucks food, have Starbucks signs and clothes and logos, but arenât owned or operated by Starbucks. They license all their food and coffee and outfits and everything from SB, but are run by whoever theyâre inside of. So even though they clearly look and act like a SB, they canât take their loyalty cards or coupons or discounts and generally kind of suck, and treat the employees like crap.
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Hmm? Itâs coffee thatâs been brewed in a big industrial percolator, and then freeze dried. (knowledge sourced from Tropico)
