Oh dear. So they have coffee some apparently don’t like and a range of different sayings one may or may not agree with on their paper cups. Goodness gracious, better release the hounds! Once that’s done, we can turn our attention to the more serious matter of those horrible Dixie cup riddles we don’t find funny. Mark it on your calendars, folks: next week, we march on Kimberley Clark headquarters!
Honestly I can’t fathom being offended by a line on a cup, especially if it’s merely taken from a pool of different POVs. It’s hardly likely that the company is genuinely trying to change the religious beliefs of its customers by, I dunno, allowing people to wipe their fingers on napkins quoting everyone from Harvey Feinstein to Martin freakin’ Luther.
(Although I must admit that many’s the hot summer afternoon when a heady sip of a Grande Mocha Frappoccino w/ whip has found this atheist-leaning agnostic quite certain of the existence of a benevolent God. Those indoctrinating Starbucks bastards!)
What kind of pitting IS this? Is it my imagination or has the Pit been sliding back upwards to the dangerously MPSIMS-y levels we haven’t seen since Giraffe first started as mod? What happened to the kick-ass-take-names long-necked dude who swept into a light and frothy Pit several months ago and, with several raspy sweeps of his prehensile tongue, returned it to the dark and acidic place it is supposed to be? I suspect everyone’s favorite camelopardalis been replaced by a replicant. Some particularly sappy Okapi, presumably…
Yeah, but that’s the stuff that tastes like burnt rabbit poop. They need to add all the frothy stuff and melted candy bars in a (vain) attempt to mask it.
And yea, guizot, Starbucks are everywhere. In NYC there’s a place where you can stand just to the left of a Starbucks and look half a block west at another Starbucks. Lewis Black even talks about a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks.
C’mon folks. It’s the Starbucks equivalent of a damned fortune cookie! It’s not their corporate philosophy. Just a bunch of cups with different sayings on them.
Granted, I find the one cited in the OP to be remarkably insipid, not particularly inspiring, and to have a nasty taint of proselytizing. But I don’t think it should be interpreted as Starbuck’s organizing a concerted effort to piss off the atheists.
Yeah, you should be grateful. It’s terrible how Starbucks hires those people to drag folks into their stores forcibly and give them frappuccino enemas against their will.
No, but it means I don’t have to deal with the ubiquity of that stupid logo. Not to mention the coffeehouse where I live is locally-owned and the coffee is better.
I wonder how many of the “I hate Starbucks” people travel a lot, and I mean, more than once a month. Quite often it’s the only drinkable coffee in airports, the alternative being some mixture of FO2 and propylene glycol that costs exactly the same, if not more, than Starbucks.
It’s not that I hate Starbucks. I travel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike regularly, and Starbucks is frequently the only place to get coffee. I like some of their coffees and am happy I can get them at my local supermarket.
What I dislike is the ubiquity. To me, it’s not about coffee, it’s about a corporation that is metastasizing and choking out local competition. That it’s possible to have them within a block of each other speaks not of a friendly company but of a cut-throat marauder. I don’t see the need to be within arm’s length of a cup of coffee at all times, and especially not the same cup of coffee.
I like my local coffeehouse. I know the people who work there, and they’ve always got a few minutes to sit and chat. I like the non-commercial ambiance; I don’t feel overwhelmed by stuff for sale. I get my coffee, stay for a few minutes or an hour (or however long), and leave happier than I was when I got there. There’s a real sense of community there; I’ve made several friends sitting at those tables.
Try that at one of the forty-gazillion Starbucks outlets.
I’ve done exactly that at my local Starbucks. Do they kick people out after they get their coffee at the ones in your area? Every single one I’ve been in had couches and easy chairs for people to stay and hang out.
Actually, the Starbucks logo does make me angry. It reminds me of how frequently the shrill, irrational Helen Lovejoys of the world get their way.
The image of a siren that the logo is based on made it through the damned inquisition without raising any eyebrows. When a bunch of hysterical whiners complain “If you imagine that the tails are legs, it looks like she’s holding them open in a pornographic manner,” you slap them and tell them to stop being so dirty-minded and imagining that the tails are legs. You don’t change all your signage to protect their ridiculous sensibilities. Jesus.
Oh, and their coffee is terrible, and only an option when compared to, say, Denny’s coffee. They move in and drive purveyors of better coffee out. My favourite coffeehouse downtown was driven out when Starbucks operated three stores within a block of them. Two of them were kitty-corner from each other! Of course, this wasn’t a sustainable situation for Starbucks, either – but they operated those stores until their only real competition vanished – and then they closed one of their outlets. Now people who were willing to walk that extra half a block for a decent cuppa – can’t.
My point was, the management and employees of my local coffee emporium go out of their way to make their customers feel welcome. I don’t care how long I can hang out at Starbucks, I don’t feel that sense of community and camaraderie. I sit in an overstuffed chair surrounded by overpriced merchandise for sale. Not that there’s anything wrong with spending money, but I hang out to relax and drink coffee and talk to people, something that’s hard to do in a place that’s so obviously a business.
So, why aren’t liberal groups protesting In-And-Out Burger in California for putting evangelical Christian messages on their food wrappers? Why not quotes from Jewish, Muslim, and secular writers, huh? Why are businesses free to promote a right-wing agenda, like Wal-Mart, Chick Fil-A and the like, but one leftie quote earns the smiting of the fundies?
Pisses me off. What pisses me off more is Starbucks giving in.
Um, because there’s general consensus that In-N-Out rocks, while some people seem to think Starbucks blows?
Well, but why can’t Starbucks put a Christian message on its cups? (Yeah, I know Rick Warren is to Christianity as Starbucks is to coffee, but still.) I agree there ought to be more messages, but what’s so wrong with putting a Christian message out there? It’s not like Christianity isn’t mainstream; the majority of Americans (i.e., over 50%) self-identify as Christian.
I guess I just don’t see getting worked up over this. Yes, I loves me some Starbucks coffee. I also think it’s grand that Starbucks employees can get health benefits (soulless corporation my ass). If you don’t like the message, vote with your wallet. Which, it seems, most of the people here who don’t like Starbucks are already doing.
SBUX is a well-oiled machine that’s made plenty of investors a lot of money. But the coffee is truly mediocre. I usually ask for an extra shot so I can taste it. It’s the most expensive espresso in town, by the way ($3.50+ for a 16 oz. latte vs $2.75 at many local stands). I only patronize the place when at the airport.
WEll, an example of their tactics…there was an independant coffee shop here downtown that was pretty popular. Starbucks went to the landlord and kept offering him more and more money until when their lease expired he kicked out the independant shop and gave their store to Starbucks.
But thats not why I hate them.
Its the coffee.
They burn the hell out of perfectly good coffee destroying all the subtle flavors that make the differant origins of coffee special. They do this so that you cant really tell the coffee is stale, and it is. You’re tasting charcoal and sugar, not coffee. Coffee is only really good for about two weeks after its roasted. Once you try coffee that was roasted within the last few days you will never buy the stale bagged stuff you find at the store again.
Their espresso shots are pulled way to fast, and taste like bong water. Its hard for me to get people to try a straight espresso shot in my shop because they think they all taste like mermaid poo.
I don’t know where you live, but here the “local coffee emporiums” are mostly full of indie wankers and would-be poets, the ones that aren’t blare loud music that pretty much prohibits quiet conversations unless you go when it’s totally dead in the middle of the day. Sometimes you want coffee at a time other than 3pm. And if you aren’t in the mood for having music blared at you or being drowned in cigarrette smoke (because a couple of them are also bars) then there isn’t much other choice. Sometimes the atmosphere can be nice but I can’t say I ever made any new friends in a coffee shop regardless of who owns it. Certainly I don’t feel any sense of camaraderie or community. Is it like an episode of Cheers?
I like Starbucks. I don’t like coffee that much and the flavoured ones are good for me, their chai is fine for my taste and you can usually count on it to be fairly quiet. The suits and college kids in there mind their own business. In my experience the cost is pretty much in line with all the other coffee houses I’ve been to.
And my point still stands that “bad” is a relative thing. When you’re trapped in the medium-security prison known as an “airport” with no easy way to get out and shop at alternate places, it’s fairly good relative to the other choices.
I mean, is Starbucks really that bad, compared to all the places one could get coffee, or is hating it just come back into fashion again on the SDMB, like it seems to every 3-6 months? I guess Winter is coming, after all…
Never understood that. Their fries are soggy crap, their burgers not half as good as even the worst independent shop (or even McDonalds). Their stuff would not be worth waiting the walk from the car for, let alone anything else. I’ve been there twice, the second time to confirm the suckiness of the food.
I assume Starbucks is mixing the new crap in with their regular quotes, not making it goyish only, right? In that case, why complain. Maybe we can suggest some Ingersoll quotes.
