
Starbucks, More Than Coffee - tommaxwell
http://tommaxwell.co/post/48730290617/starbucks-more-than-coffee#.UXy7aSaGgak
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huhtenberg
McDonalds, More Than Fries

Duh. This is what the franchising is all about - providing consistent branded
experience across all outlets. And, yes, one of the prime benefits is that it
provides a sense of familiarity regardless of location.

(edit) Another take on the title though - Starbucks main problem is that it
_does_ in fact try to be more than coffee. I really wish they weren't publicly
traded and didn't have the pressure of growing revenues. I was a loyal
customer for several years (2 visits per workday, $10 a pop), but then they
started venturing in movie promotion (remember the "Spelling bee" bullshit
printed all over the cups?), then they decided that Copehangen danishes were
less preferable than overpriced ready-made paninis, after that - low-cal
mystery-ingredient polymer-based sweets took over a quarter of the pastry
space. Then, finally, they dropped Coffee from the name in preparation for
being much more than coffee, i.e. booze. It went downhill so rapidly that it
was painful to see. It used to be a nice place with an ugly logotype to visit,
but now it's just the logotype.

~~~
_pmf_
> McDonalds, More Than Fries

I take mine with Peruvian potatoes, organic hemp seed oil and Mediterranean
sea salt, to go, please.

~~~
JosephHatfield
Gwyneth Paltrow, is that you?

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gojomo
I once lamented the Starbuckization of the world.

But then one day wandering around an unfamiliar area in a city in China,
desperately needing to go to the bathroom, I could only find bathrooms that
were (a) locked; or (b) without toilet paper. Things were about to get really
embarrassing, in a foreign city, far from where I was staying.

Then, I spotted a Starbucks. It had a clean, unlocked, well-stocked bathroom I
could use even before a purchase. It was like an oasis in the desert.

Starbucks earned a __*-ton of brand loyalty from me that day.

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cema
I heard a joke once that MacDonalds built a chain of free public restrooms in
Moscow.

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VLM
"There’s nothing worse than being in a foreign city with a dead phone. It’s
almost terrifying at times."

OK kid, it wasn't that bad, believe it or not we survived pretty well. Travel
used to be an adventure. Part of the adventure was being scared, at least a
little bit, sometimes. Kind of an extreme sport.

I am old enough to have traveled quite a bit before and after cellphones and
have noticed that the magic talisman of a smart phone makes travel
dramatically more boring for me. I also spend a lot less time planning, I'll
just figure it out onsite with my phone. I miss the daydreaming/planning
phase.

Phone reliance while traveling has effects far beyond just using the GPS to
figure out where you are.

I would theorize the lack of fear due to having phones results in the hard
core travelers taking even crazier adventures, and a lot of non-hard core
travelers doing more travel because the "scary" drops below their personal
threshold for "scary".

The author's story was really about his magical phone.

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rafski
This is an embodiment of the American tourist stereotype to an extent that
makes it funny — despite, or maybe because of being a very polite attempt to
rationalize it.

Why leave your country when wherever you go, the first step is to look for it
again?

There are local coffee shops in every country. In most cases they have a great
atmosphere, most of them have wi-fi, most of them will let you charge your
phone. All of them have… yes, coffee, often served in local ways — an
opportunity to learn something about the culture. They will understand your
order, no need to worry about your foreign language skills. Most countries
have Starbucks-style coffee shops too these days, blended with a dash of local
style.

If you go abroad and go to Starbucks, are you any different to those dreadful
low-life tourists spending their holidays abroad in their respective country
pubs, drinking their home beer like they never left for holidays in the first
place?

Last time I was abroad and went to Starbucks dragged in by friends I felt like
a loser. In part I guess, for having uninspiring friends. It could also be
because I overpaid roughly by 250-300%, compared with prices in those lovely
local cafes in the area.

I appreciate the warm tone of your article, clearly it's coming from a good
place. But if you're in a coffee country like Italy and get your coffee at
Starbucks, you're dead to me! ;)

Apologies for my patronising tone, it was meant to be somewhat warm too…

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jared314
This could be said for McDonalds, Coke, or any other brand you personally
prefer, or are looking for. The most fun, i've found, are youtube videos
showing americans living abroad and finding american food in the ethnic food
sections [0][1].

[0] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywCX6znxUWQ>

[1] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmmZ6q8vjeU>

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alanbyrne
This is an interesting point of view, and almost exactly the opposite of mine.

I also travel a lot and I love it. I travel in order to experience new
cultures, people, food and drink. The last thing I want to see when I have
traveled half way across the world is something that I see on my own freaking
street.

The smallest and most remote places in the world seem to have widely available
wireless internet access in lots of coffee shops, pubs, restaurants and bus
terminals. I'd much rather support the local, little guys when travelling.
It's usually cheaper, tastier and you meet many more amazing people inside.
You're right in saying that Starbucks is consistent, but for me half the fun
of travelling is playing menu roulette and seeing what you end up with.

I do understand the occasional need for a "taste of home", a haven of comfort
if you will (In my case, hunting for a full English breakfast after days of
eating fish and rice). I guess the line between "a recognizable, familiar, and
reliable brand" and "overarching corporate crusher of culture" seems a little
blurred to me.

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mrtksn
when you are not traveling just for the sake of traveling, you are definitely
looking for the comfort of the familiarity.

if you are on leisure trip overseas you would not want to have the exact same
experience that you have at home, you seek something novel. but when you are
doing frequent business trips that you didn't want to go on first place and
you don't have much time for anything other than work you don't want to do
risky stuff. all your mind is over the thing you are supposed to do and you
just want some "home comfort" to refresh yourself and get your mind ready for
the task.

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pimeys
This was an interesting read. For a person who's always lived in a city with
no or only one or two Starbucks, it's a completely different experience.

The first time I visited in Starbucks was when I visited Berkeley last spring.
I have to say I care about my coffee a lot, I like to do my own cappuccinos
and espresso shots and I love cafeterias where they have excellent coffee and
good baristas. Starbucks was such a disappointment. If I pay so much for my
coffee I expect to get the best out of it. Sadly I can do better myself, so I
don't think I'll visit Starbucks any more.

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chris_wot
Pity they make such awful coffee.

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new299
Hey, unfortunately Starbucks is what passes for good coffee in Japan. I know
they're not great, but if it's that or Nescafe...

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nlativy
Where in Japan? I just got back from visiting Tokyo and Kyoto and there are
loads of good places to drink coffee. In Tokyo a few of my favourites were
Bear Pond Espresso, Omotesando Koffee, Maruyama Coffee but there are a
multitude of great places.

If you're interested in Japanese coffee culture you should read Merry White's
Coffee Life in Japan which shows how rich Japanese coffee culture is and how
it has influenced the recent speciality coffee movement in the US including
popular places like Blue Bottle.

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new299
Those are in central Tokyo I think? There are a few decent places here (I've
just moved to Setagaya) but outside of central Tokyo (I was living in North
Tokyo) it's a different story. Even around here, if you just walk into a
random chain, I think you'll find the coffee is markedly worse than Starbucks.

I'm not saying the Kissatens generally in Japan aren't great, they are! I love
them to bits. They serve good food are independently run and have a really
nice casual atmosphere and friendly owners, and unique character quite often
with children and or dogs running around...

But the coffee often isn't that great, they can be quite smokey (Starbucks is
the only nonsmoking coffee shop I've found in Japan) and the vast majority
don't have wifi. I can see why a "digital nomad" might be attracted to
Starbucks you know what you'll get and you can hang around working without
feeling bad.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll try and check them out.

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xanadohnt
I'm far from a diehard patriot but one thing I truly love about 'this american
life' is the café sitting culture. On the daily I downright camp out at the
many and diverse local cafés in Richmond, VA. As far as I can tell from my
travel experience in a number of European countries, the long staying café
visits I, and many of my peers enjoy, is somewhat unique to American culture.
In some senses I think the 'Starbucks Experience' the OP is after is really
the license to safely linger for extended lengths beyond what you'd feel
comfortable doing in any other local, non-chain joint.

And for what it's worth, you won't catch me in a Starbucks.

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subsystem
I have no idea where you got that idea from? I was under the impression that
it's more or less the other way around. Of course it's somewhat different
between countries and during summer there's few people around in general. Also
Arab countries have a strong coffehouse culture.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/business/starbucks-
tailors...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/business/starbucks-tailors-its-
experience-to-fit-to-european-tastes.html)

<http://www.examiner.com/article/european-coffee-culture>

<http://www.aswetravel.com/cafe-culture-in-europe/>

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UVB-76
If Internet access and a power outlet are what you need, pretty much any café
or restaurant in any developed or developing country can take care of your
needs these days.

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new299
This is not true. In Japan Starbucks is one of the few coffee shops chains
that offer free wifi, and they only started doing that recently. Reasonable
coffee is relatively thin on the ground in Japan as well, Starbucks is really
the only chain you can go to and know you'll get a decent coffee.

As far as I can tell they are the only coffee shops that are completely non-
smoking too, which might be important to some people.

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keithpeter
Good points.

In the UK, all cafes are non-smoking by law and many have wifi. I appreciate
the US based nomad's desire for comfort (I once had to airmail Marmite and
Typhoo tea to a friend working in Odessa) but would suggest trying some of the
independents in the larger UK cities. Leaf in Liverpool and Yorks Bakery Cafe
in Birmingham spring to mind.

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new299
yep, there are more decent coffee shops in the UK, even so decent independents
can be hard to find.

There was an interesting blog post about Yelp a while back. He talked about
how Starbucks and Yelp were trying to solve the same problem in different
ways. Yelp's solution was to help you find something like your favourite
coffee shops when away from home. Starbucks to build the same thing
everywhere. :)

I'm not sure I buy it, but it's an interesting way of thinking about it.

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arbuge
Nothing wrong with this of course, but your life experiences might be richer
if you also checked out some local coffee shops once in a while, in the USA as
well as overseas.

Bonus: many of them have free wifi without requiring those annoying t&cs....

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kamakazizuru
so i dont get it - a 3 paragraph long self-posted article about how the OP
likes starbucks cause he likes to charge his battery there is on the front
page?!

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mkr-hn
How to write a wildly popular blog post: say something that resonates with a
lot of people with just enough detail to leave room for others fill in the
blanks.

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phaemon
More than coffee; tax evasion too!

