Bucking The 'Buck
Not being much of a tea or coffee drinker, I rarely find myself inside a Starbucks. Nevertheless, the place must have been doing something right to have expanded so much (until recently). So I'm always surprised at the vitriol it inspires.
Is it such a bad place? Then why do people go? There are plenty of other coffee houses around with different "atmosphere," and presumably different prices and products. Is it just the reputation of Starbucks, and not Starbucks itself, that bothers people? (The Coffee Bean is pretty big out here and I don't hear the same condemnation.)
I think the proper thought experiment is this: imagine the Starbucks corporation doesn't exist. No Starbucks anywhere. Now imagine something exactly like a Starbucks opens just down the block. Would you think it's a pretty cool place, or would you reject it?
posted by LAGuy @ 12:16 AM
4 Comments:
I am not a coffee drinker but I seek out Starbucks everywhere because of the look and feel and the basic no hurry atmosphere. Although I am disappointed that the corporate ethos has changed in harder times (fewer stuffed chairs, more merchandising space, less seating) but I understand it (even if I dont like it)- they got to pay the bill in all sorts of economic conditions.
I assume the vitriol it inspires is it because it displaces mom& pop and more "authentic" locales- I guess but they don't inspire the same level of distaste as Walmart (easy becasee wasting time@ Starbucks=enjoyable, shopping at Walmart, not so much)
Like most peopel, I hate uniformity when it replaces something I like with something substandard but uniformity is fine if they get it right)
But if it were the only one, would it be as "authentic" as all those mom and pop places?
Some people like shopping in Walmart.
The dislike of Starbuck's, like the dislike of Microsoft, is two tiered: those who hate it because it's huge, and those who hate it because its products are (in their opinion) low quality.
However, many who claim to hate it for the second reason really hate it for the first.
I lived in Seattle from 1994 to 2005. I can testify that hatred of Starbuck's began much earlier in Seattle than it did anywhere else. This strongly suggests that the problem was the corporate size (they were on every corner and in every minimall in Seattle long before they reached that size elsewhere), and not because of the quality of their coffee (which hasn't changed for two decades).
I don't drink coffee, but very much enjoy their unsweetened iced tea. I have no problem with their ubiquity, though I can understand how the fact that you can see four of them from one corner in Times Square can seem like a bit much to some folks.
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