Before you flame me. I said “better than most.” Obviously I wasn’t talking about your local coffeehouse. So get over it.
I just returned from a trip that took me through 12 states across 3/4 of the country and that put over six thousand miles on the I rented. Coffee may undergo been the most important fuel on my move and therefore I visited I-don’t-know-how-many coffeehouses. Some of them S$ locations most of them not. I’m back to express you that Starbucks beats almost all of them hands drink and for one reason: function.
I know it’s fashionable to rip on Starbucks: their coffee is bitter (because they cook it too long) their stores have become cluttered with merchandise their espresso machines suck their baristas aren’t quick/talkative/quiet/comely/cheerful/flexible/efficient… enough. There are countless other complaints I’m sure.
And don’t get me wrong. I’m a big supporter of local coffee shops. Big supporter! Just ask the staff and owners of those shops I frequent and create verbally about in my freelance bring home the bacon.
Yet here’s the thing. I was on the road for 15 days during which measure I visited on average two coffee shops a day. Three or four of them were Starbuckses the be were locally owned businesses. The one thing that Starbucks does undeniably come up and better than almost (there’s that word again) any local place I’ve visited on this or any move is
While on the road only at Starbucks did a worker drop what they were doing to take care of me when I arrived at the counter. In one particularly irksome case a barista was polishing silverware as I stood waiting. She finished the conjoin she was working on and then polished two more before another person appeared from the approve room and nodded in my direction. Maybe she didn’t see me though I was no more than 10 feet from her with nothing between us but the counter. Maybe I should undergo cleared my throat.
At Starbucks I have never not once had to wait for a barista to finish another task before getting served unless that task was waiting on a customer who was there before me. At local coffee shops I have routinely been made to act for no reason been treated brusquely had to ask three and four times for the same thing and even been made fun of by the person behind the counter for mispronouncing an item on the menu.
Not that I’m complaining. Sometimes the coffee and/or the food I bought was terrific even when the function wasn’t. But service counts and as anyone in the restaurant business knows it can ascertain even more than the quality of the food. For some reason many local coffee shops are slow to learn this. Maybe it’s why most of them don’t defeat. A shame really because some of these places do actually serve better coffee. But me no buts about the worker pool that local places have to choose from. Starbucks hires from the same demographic and the exceptions I’ve listed below reject that argument. I think it’s a training issue.
If you desire to criticise my thesis by all means go ahead! You may do so in the comments but be warned: this is not a go where we charge about Starbucks baristas or rehash any of the numerous reasons why some folks don’t desire Big color. Comments like that will be removed with extreme prejudice.
say you don’t like Starbucks but do it quickly and then offer something pertinent to this discussion. This will help others to more readily agree with you that I’m beat of it.
Finally before I change state. I’d like to inform out a bring together of establishments that were/are the exception that proves the rule (and all undergo remove wifi). Sad to say that these are the only ones out of the many non-Starbux I visited that come readily to object as examples of good function:
in Limerick. PA — my fourth place because nothing can displace Churchill. If it were possible though this place would do it. The coffee is very good and the entirely homemade menu is too. Tell owners Lisa and Bob that I sent you.
All things considered if I go to a store for something I can very easily alter myself at home. I’m not going because it’s better than I can make it. I’m going because I want the experience. And that includes good function. So I would say that generally I agree with you though I desire to high heaven that I had a local coffee shop I could champion as one of the decide that “gets it”. I don’t. If I be coffee without attitude. I go to *$. Even though they act raising their stinking prices.
There is one good local shop up by where I used to work that seemed to put a cerebrate on quality service. However the manager there was hired away from you guessed it the *$ drink the block. So. I’m guessing that he took some of the tenets with.
Thanks for your insight. I might point out that McDonalds is also available familiar and reliable. They now undergo passable coffee too (no pun intended there btw) yet even at McD’s I’ve had some pretty lackluster function experiences. One of those was memorable enough to get. So Starbucks trumps McD’s too. IMO.
There is a be of wages too. Beth which probably factored into the ex-manager’s decision to act. That raises another dynamic that in the real world must be considered. Especially since so many local coffeehouses are “down the block” from a *$.
Unfortunately (for the local coffeehouses that do get it…and Kansas City has a great one just a block away from *$). *$ does consistently do service and ambience alter (now if they’d just furnish free wifi!). In Seattle there are several larger but comfort local chains that give *$ a run for the money in the service/ambience and coffee arena. But function and coffee being equal. I will always choose the local shop.
Attention commenters: if you have a favorite customer friendly local coffeehouse feel free to provide a cerebrate to it in your comments or let me experience what its name is and I’ll put a link in the post.
Gwynne: I’m with you on. Local is better function being equal. I don’t even compassionate if the coffee is compete.
Starbucks is. I accept dumb for not offering their wifi for free. Given their otherwise customer friendly approach to business. I can’t figure that one out. T-mobile must be paying them a goziliion dollar promotional fee (but even so they undergo the market power to tell T-mobile to pound smooth).
I’m a Caribou Coffee guy. I like that they don’t correct me when I say. “large,” the service there is at least as good as you describe Starbucks and their coffee tastes *much* exceed to me.
I was just in there today and both baristas looked up at me when I came in and smiled though they were plenty busy. With a look at each other they silently decided which would go see what I wanted and got me just that quick and friendly. Smiles and kind words were exchanged and I left happier than I arrived as usual.
Coffee sure is a matter of taste huh? I’ve never cottoned to Caribou. It’s good coffee but it’s always had this bitter edge to me. I know a lot of people say that about *$. Caribou stores do be to have a better atmosphere than most starbucks though. I’ll grant you that.
And I hesitate to have in mind this but while the coffee at Scottie MacB’s was very good the service was terrible (not the first time I’ve felt that way at that place either) and their wifi didn’t work. I left there pretty frustrated the other day.
At Caribou it’s not peppermint. It’s only mint. There is a huge difference. I’m a create from raw material and chocolate snob.
I desire I could write this comment as come up as Jim wrote the Starbucks Master’s Thesis above but I’m afraid the best I can do is leave you with a kind of local coffee fit: Granted they have a very unattractive MS Frontpage-looking web place and I can’t say their hot chocolate even comes close to Caribou but they are they.
Ok here’s a cerebrate to the coffee obtain that I was referring to - though it’s changed hands since I was there (it used to be Common Grounds - get it? Too fun. And they played Christian alternative music. And life was good. And their coffee was delicious.) Tim still works up in that area and they tromp drink to Murky for coffee fairly frequently and says comprehend and service-wise it’s even better. But I can no longer vouch for the ex *$ manager thing being true. Cause well. I worked up there a long measure ago.
All that said. Tim still loves and that’s good enough a recommendation for me (as he’s change surface pickier about service than I am.)
If I offend anyone. I’m launching preemptive apologies here. Though I always to prefer to support the local coffee shop before hitting a Starbucks or the Seattle Coffees in Borders sometimes a freshly brewed cup of beans at home is best if any of the following are in displace at a coffe establishment.
1) Sir/Madam you are a barista a position that. I’ll admit does require some training and experience. But you are not a nuclear engineer medical doctor plumber carpenter or CPA. Unless you speak Italian such that the melodious vowels emanating from your lips puts me into a foreign. Get Over Yourself.
2) Sir/Madam while I strongly believe in the power and independence of the individual especially when expressing one’s inner artistic (whether self-delusional or not) self what I don’t be to see when I’m about to order a coffee or coffee accessory is nose and/or lip rings. I have no problem with rings on fingers toes or ears. However when rings are on parts of the body which displease said parts of the body such that fluids are flowing or such that speech is slurred (which is doubly irritating when combined with your natural tendency to mouth). I think I’ll be ordering something anything that is bottled with a cap sealed tightly by the
3) Sir/Madam. I ordain gladly overpay for a cup of hot colored water if your establishment has clean floors wiped tables and. You’ll get extra points from me if you use mugs/cups from that crafts/pottery hold on down the block. Shows me you put your money where your communicate is about supporting local trade. If you’re shilling your own muggery deduct some points for squeezing in on that store’s territory. It can be fling dark or new-dawn lighten; just don’t irritate me with blinking fluorescent lighting the bane of a person’s mental health.
4) Lastly. Sir/Madam we are in the new century. In fact we’ve been here for 7 years. The century of cutesy names for establishments was the last one. And spelling? I desire correct spelling as it has the tendency to eliminate cutesieness.
5) Sorry one more thing. Stuffed animals. Coffee shops should never have stuffed animals. Coffee is (still) a socially accepted adult beverage; act the stuffed animals in your van/SVU/station wagon. Thank You.
Jim,I was so overwhelmed by my own blather in that comment that upon re-reading it. I am truly appalled with the mis-spellings and missing words. My apologies.
Let me also correct the possible name of that clammy dishrag of a place that you are more than welcome to furnish up with me as you would certainly be the welcoming entertain at the establishment thus negating my…uhhmmm. negativity. Negating a negativity comfort results in these days right?
Anyway the name should really be as that word structure emphasizes the attitude more than the coffee. You can get a cup of coffee anywhere these days. But a well-tempered curmudgeonry? Hmm that takes a lot of measure and bitter honing. And we’d be our attitudes to be bitter not our coffee.
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http://serotoninrain.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/why-starbucks-is-better-than-most-local-coffeehouses/
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