Starbucks: The Empire Strikes Back

Haha, on a related note: Blimpie! I don't think I've ever actually eaten anything from a Blimpie, but they have the crappest spots I've ever seen -- they invariably look so old and horrible and low-rent, and half the time there's a nice clean Subway two doors down.

xpost

The Blimpie right off of Union Sq. is one of the most depressing places in the city.

Some delis have good coffee - I think you can usually tell by taking a quick peak behind the counter - do you see a grinder? Does their equipment look clean and well-maintained? Can you spot any bags, cans or other evidence of coffee brands you like or don't like?

Yes. SF is pretty consistent everywhere, but quality goes up as you go NW. One of the best cups of coffee I've ever had came from a broken down gas station in the Eastern WA wastelands.

Stanley Fish is confused by Starbucks.

Stanley Fish is my university's "professor at large"!

I should also point out that Fish may be referring to the two Starbucks on campus, which are, indeed, pretty appalling.

Ha, I never knew that's where he ended up! He was at UIC for a while; a friend of mine audited a class of his.

I'd have liked it better if the article was about Starbucks as an interpretive community. I'd have thought that putting the onus on the consumer to dress up his or her own coffee would have interested him in the same way as reader-response criticism.

That's probably a class project.

oh no!

http://www.slate.com/id/2180301/nav/tap3/

let's be honest, we're talking about drugs here

drugs that i need very badly right now

Orange County, Calif., coffeehouse owner Martin Diedrich started hyperventilating when he first heard a Starbucks was opening "within a stone's throw" of his cafe, yet he reported similar results: "I didn't suffer whatsoever. Ultimately I prospered, in no small part because of it."

Okay, this is WAY disengenuous on his part; then again I think he's trying to put the past fifteen years all behind him. (First he ended up allied with the PepsiCo/Taco Bell empire for leverage, then all the assets of Diedrich got sold to Starbucks anyway and the entire chain is almost nothing now.) On the bright side he landed on his feet and has restarted with Kéan Coffee but even so.

It's entirely possible that he's talking strictly about a Starbucks opening near Kéan! (Which is true, having just been in the area yesterday.) I suppose you have to look at any bright side you can.

They consolidated me and the boyfriend's two $5 gift cards so we could buy $8 worth of coffee and they returned a giftcard with $38 on it. Coffee coffee coffee free coffee.

awesome

i have been admiring the return to the original brand

ouch:

SEE ALSO
Starbucks reports falling profits
30 Apr 08 | Business
Starbucks hit by housing slowdown
24 Apr 08 | Business
Starbucks turns to customer ideas
09 Apr 08 | Business
Starbucks must pay $100m in tips
21 Mar 08 | Americas
Starbucks in temporary US closure
26 Feb 08 | Americas
Starbucks announces HQ job cuts
22 Feb 08 | Business
Why Starbucks' sales have gone cold
01 Feb 08 | Business

There isn't a corporate logo in the world that can't be improved by asking "WHERE THE TITTIES AT???"

Predicition: Starbucks new marketing push is not going to turn them around.

Prediction: No one will give a fuck either.

still my favorite post on this thread:

My god I'd so go to a Starbucks that had Hanle y behind the counter causing trouble.

They should get back into whaling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/business/02sbux.html

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsela&itemid=WeED13%20Jan%202009%2020%3A43%3A18%3A030

How do you feel about Starbucks? NOt the coffee, the corporation. Allot of people seem sort of indifferent while many wan t to fire bomb them. How do YOU feel ? I workd there for a year and caused much trouble, as I didn't agree with most of their policies!

― Pennysong Hanle y, Saturday, September 8, 2001 2:00 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspect5es.gif

kind of fucked up that this isn't being reported, ain't it?

Would it be overly pedantic to point out that you just linked to a report of it?

yeah, in that widely read tome the east london advertiser.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23618498-details/Starbucks+is+firebombed+%27in+protest+against+Israel%27/article.do

fair nuff. i would have expected the guardian and independent to have covered it, but also possibly to have offered some comment. amid the harry's p-word hysteria it is a bit rich.

starbucks, they peddle espresso drinks that are a little too expensive, and coffee that has noticeably improved in the last year or so (and which isn't expensive at all), and from what i hear anecdotally their employee sitch is ok, and they're open a lot fucking later than the korean lunch lady's stand down the street even though she has b.l.t.s, which is usually what i'm after, the moral of this is fuck everything without decent bacon lol i love it, especially when it's a ladies' bacon purchase choice vs. microwave costco-style strips, but you have always got to consider the hours.

x-post i'm learning this as it moves along

http://queenmaryoccupation.blogspot.com/

^^ fuckin guys. QMU is actually a pretty dece university, or at least i thought it was. what a bunch of plankton.

Skillz.

That Starbucks has always had its doors smashed in ever since it opened.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hvIDVXLef80/SX-SvhElvuI/AAAAAAAAAAc/j5UNR4ip-bY/s1600-h/IMG_0759.JPG

Also, there's a Starbucks on the QMU campus? How can these poor students with their thousands of pounds worth of fees afford £2.50 for a coffee when they've already spent their pocket money/allowances/trust funds/wages on the Kate Moss @ Topshop collection and Does It Offend You Yeah stickers? We just used to make do with Nescafe.

Truly I care about the important issues.

After considerable research into the financial and ideological background of the Starbucks Corporation, we have decided to withdraw our demand that products of the Starbucks franchise should cease to be sold on campus. Despite our misgivings about Howard Schultz the C.E.O. of Starbucks, we feel that there is insufficient evidence that the company is involved in financing the Israeli military.
We therefore replace the demand with the aforementioned condemnation of the BBC. We believe that this is a much more pertinent issue for the people of Gaza, as well as the College.

loooool

This new instant coffee thing -- do they really want us not to patronize their stores? Is it like selling Netflix subscriptions at a movie theater?