Did you knooooooooooow that there are 131 Starbuck’s in Manhattan with 68 of those within 2 blocks of each other? (According to my trusty Village Voice)
And for you out-of-town folk, Manhattan is a mere 2 miles wide and 12 miles long!
IS IT ANY WONDER I AM ON A MAJOR CAFFEINE BUZZZZZZZ?!?
And there’s at least one bodega on every block and street vendors in midtown that sell coffee at 1/3 the price of a Starbucks. Coffee of comparable quality.
So maybe you’re on a major caffeine buzz because you like getting ripped off?
I read somewhere that Starbucks has this notion that it’s better to have more of their own stores competing with each other in an area than to have other coffee shops moving in on their territory. Makes some sense really, but I wonder what the long term backlash might be from everyone being sick of seeing a Starbucks on every corner.
“Starbucks to right of me,
Starbucks to left of me,
Starbucks in front of me!”
I holler’d and thunder’d;
“Latte with sauce carmel,
Decaf with Turkish smell
Overpriced swill they sell—”
Cannot avoid those stores!
Each time I go outdoors—
There must be six hundred.
I know what you mean . . . they just opened another Starbucks a block diagonal from my office; we now have one on every corner.
Call me a republican, but wassnt Starbucks once a small community coffee shop at one point in time? It wouldnt have grown if they diddnt have good coffee and good service in the first place…so I personally cant blame Starbucks for being as popular as they are now. We have a local coffee shop called the Mean Bean that isnt 5 minutes from my house…but if I’m in the mood for some caffene, I opt to travel 20 minutes to the nearest Starbucks…come to think of it, the mall where I go get it at has…4 of them within a 1 mile radius! Ha! But anyways, back to the point. the Mean Bean has the worst coffee known to the human world…they use the same beans for EVERYTHING. Maybe you’ve heard of the bean before…the Columbia Crappetta
I only frequent Starbucks when I’m at a mall/airport/whatever that doesn’t have a local coffeehouse around and to get the above-mentioned Tazo tea (yum!) there(the only other place I’ve found that brand is at Putnam Market in Saratoga Springs, and they only sell sampler packs). Unfortunately, Starbucks pretty much has a monopoly on coffee here at school, so it’s unavoidable at times.
They recently remodeled the Plaza (outdoor supermarket + shops style affair) in the town where I live, and added some new shops (Pier 1, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.), including, of course, a Starbucks.
There’s also a full-service Starbucks in the Barnes and Noble bookstore in the same Plaza.
There’s also a full-service Starbucks in the Albertson’s (supermarket) in the same Plaza.
Three stores. And we’re not talking square blocks, square miles here. We’re talking about three stores in one shopping center. Boggles my mind.
Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Bart goes to the mall to get his ear pierced and outside of the piercing place, all the other stores are Starbucks.
I personally don’t like Starbucks. Their hot chocolate is weak, and frappucinos taste like cold coffee.
Heh. Not too far from my house, there’s a Starbuck’s directly across the street from another Starbuck’s. I guess they figure they’d lose money if people had to use the crosswalk.
Well, heard an interview with a spokesman or something; he basically said that they found that a new Starbucks would suck business away from the old one at first, but that after a while the sales in the old one would return.
Lewis Black did a screamingly funny rant on Starbucks about 6 months ago. The clip used to be up on the Comedy Central website, but curses!!! it’s been replaced.
Funny you should mention that ~ the one and only taping of the Daily Show I went to, Lewis Black was there saying that very rant! It was funny as hell! - Tenacious D was also a guest that day.