Starbucks: Friend or Foe?

We know that many of you start your morning in that long line at Starbucks. Well, we're in line right behind you, and like many of you we have a love/hate relationship with Starbucks. Just like the men in our lives, Starbucks tastes so good and familiar, warms us up on a cold day, satisfies our addictions, but also drives us crazy and disappoints us time and time again.

Anyway, we would like to shake the hand of whoever decided to add healthy, real food to Starbucks' selection of the edible. We used to hate it when we would stand in line with low blood sugar and there were only rows and rows of muffins, scones, and fatty pastries gleaming before us. But now Starbucks has a colorful selection of yummy sandwiches, interesting salads, and our favorite - a fruit and cheese plate! If you have not tried it, we really recommend it. It only has 350 calories and it makes for an awesome breakfast, is fun to pick at for lunch, and even goes great with a bottle of wine for dinner. Thank you, Mr. Starbucks, for proving that sometimes real food tastes just as good as cake with our coffee.

While we love having healthy options, that doesn't mean that we don't want to splurge every now and then. When we walk in and decide to order a Frappuccino instead of our normal drip, we hate it when they give us the once over and say, "No whip cream, right?" No! Wrong! We absolutely want the whip cream - extra, please! Just because we may look "healthy" or "fit" or "whatever," that does not mean that we want to skimp on the whip. We'll tell you how we want to have our coffee, Starbucks. Don't judge us by our appearance or what city we live in and make the decision for us. We thought long and hard about our choice to have a treat, and we want to enjoy every last whip-creamy sip of it without you reminding us about the 500 empty calories. We know. We wrote a book about it. And we want all women to feel like they can order a mocha with whip cream without getting guilt from the damn "Barista."

Onto something slightly pettier - it really drives us crazy when we're seven people deep in line and the woman who is normally relegated to fishing pastries out of the case decides to get all ambitious and start taking orders from people in line. Then when we tell her we want a drip coffee, she goes and pours it and places it next to the register. Noooooooo!!! Don't make us stare at our delicious hot coffee for twelve minutes as it cools. That only makes us want to strangle the guy in front of us when he deliberates over whether or not to have his bagel toasted.

Also, please, Starbucks, please keep the milk jugs full. Or keep a spare nearby! We just cannot take it when we have finally procured our coffee and just need to doctor it, but the half & half jug is empty. And then it takes so long for them to get another one! Where are they keeping those things? We love the food and the employees' DVD and everything, but Starbucks is still primarily a coffee establishment, and coffee requires MILK. Keep it handy. Thanks, Starbucks. We love you...even though we kind of hate you.

Comments

[OtayPanky]

Jody and Cerina: Just like the men in our lives, Starbucks tastes so good and familiar, warms us up on a cold day, satisfies our addictions, but also drives us crazy and disappoints us time and time again.

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Why not just pick different beverages and different companions?

[mandycat]

My hair stylist has several clients who work at the Starbucks across the street from her salon. They tell her that they have many customers who come in two to three times a day. I did the math and, if these folks only visit Monday through Friday, they are probably spending more than $1,000 a year. Yikes, you could make an extra mortgage payment with that. Or pay down your credit card debt. Or just about anything with better value than buying wildly overpriced and mediocre food and drink.

[mamacat]

Starbucks was the first national coffee-store chain with something that at least reminds one of a good European cup of coffee. They may not be the Sean Connery of coffee, but they are a lot better than the three stooges of coffee.

[rabb046]

"Onto something slightly pettier"...

Who knew there was anything more petty than whining about the imagined guilt-trip from the Starbucks clerk for ordering whipped cream. At least you're "fit" or "healthy" or "whatever". Imagine being judged by the "Barista" for being "fat".

[JodiLipper]

I find it fascinating that you think it's okay for women to be judged by their weight as long as they're not overweight! It is wrong to make a woman feel guilty for eating no matter what size she is. Women of all shapes and sizes can feel insecure about their bodies and what they eat, and we are trying to remedy that by telling people to stop judging others, period. If it's wrong to look down on an overweight woman for eating whipped cream, then it's equally wrong to think that a thin woman should eat only salads. Live and let live and let eat!

[rabb046]

I never said it was okay for women to be judged at all. My comment addresses the fact that you feel like you are being judged because the clerk gives you "the once over". How on earth do you know what the clerk is thinking? You don't. Rather than suggesting that people stop judging others (Jesus suggested that too, you know), why not tell people to get over themselves. It's very liberating to find out that the entire universe is not all about YOU! Ask Oprah.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/personal/10/03/self.consciousness/index.html

[TucsonEd]

I've never understood the willingness of people to do the "Starbucks dance." Just driving by Starbucks is a trip. I can always tell the "caffeine addicts" that are headed there. They tailgate you and you can the desperation in thier eyes when traffic comes to a stop.

The drive thru is always several cars deep and amazingly they have tables outside where you can drink your poison and inhale the fumes from the cars waiting in the drive thru line.

I always wonder how many of those clowns at Starbucks can really and honest truely afford that expensive habit they are feeding there. not many I wager.

If you want to truely be healthy-- skip the caffeine altogether and switch to water. Besides saving yourself a ton of money on coffee learn to cook, you'll save yourself even more.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

Ahhhh.... he of little taste for coffee. Starbucks makes coffee for those who like "european" coffee... the espresso of Italy, the dark robust french roast of Paris....the dark chocolate taste of 'turkish' brewed. Take a trip to Europe into any major city and hit a cafe...it'll change you. Once you learn to drink strong coffee... it is difficult to stop at any random convenience store or coffe shop and enjoy the coffee. I guess there has to be some sort of a catch.

I personally got hooked by a grande caramel macchiato.... and then moved up to a triple shot espresso with foam to the top.... just like they made back home...at Starbucks. Lots of taste, little fat and a good buzz for the day.

Starbucks is a lifestyle... a morning mood, a place to have a moment to yourself...or hang with a friend. It's all atmosphere and people like it....because there's nothing like being mellowed out by Ella Fitz jazz while getting wired.

What a concept.

(Disclaimer: This concept or lifestyle is not available at the World Financial Center Starbucks in NYC (next to WTC site)... and they'll probably get your order wrong as well.)

[Henry]

Starbucks (SBUX) has a market cap of $18billion. (It is worth $18 billion). Bewildering this! This is an artificially marketed creation of wealth! If each of these coffee shops were individually owned (sole proprietorships) there would be no artificial creation of $18billion of "worth". But there would still be a demand for caffein that would be met by a supply. This of course is the capitalization that would be equally well fullfilled in an economy of sole proprietors. This a small example of what we see about who we are becoming. Starbucks, what a waste. Coffee is free at the office. A fool and his money soon go separate ways.

[CornellRedneck]

Dunkin Donuts has the best coffee, by far.

[wiseferret]

If you don't mind coffee that taste like it was stored in the fireplace among the ashes. Uhg. I detest Starbuck mainly because they use cheap, crappy beans and over-roast them. Like I want heartburn from my coffee!
As for their customer service- welcome to America. Its hard to find good service anymore, especially in a chain store. Do you complain?
Why do you put up with it? Why don't you find that locally owned expresso stand, they'll probably offer you the same things, but they'll re-pour that cooled coffee with a smile. And happily remember your name next time.
Customer service isn't going to improve if they don't hear about it.

[barriosbabe]

Bravo!

They serve horrible cheap, over-roasted crap beans anywhere. The only reason they make any money is people's stupidity, the wifi's, and the intense sugar and crap added to amny popular drinks. A society addicted to HFCS. As my husband the specialty coffee roaster and magazine writer says: Starbucks, the poison confection store.