2008 Woodie Awards
Starbucks invasion
Lisa DellaPorta
Issue date: 4/21/08 Section: Op-Ed
For the better part of my life, I've been an avid coffee drinker and, lately, an addict. You might think, since I have become so coffee dependant, that I pay regular homage to the Starbucks altar. On the contrary, I have to admit, I hate Starbucks.
I do not like the burned after-taste of their java, or that for it to be flavored they must pump some sort of syrup into your cup. I detest being made to pay so much for a cup of simple coffee when, a few blocks down the road, Wawa offers three times as much for the same price and better taste. Most people, my roommates included, say "let's go for coffee" and then end up with some sort of frappuccino mess that barely resembles coffee at all. What I hate most about Starbucks, though, is what it does to the local economies and mom-and-pop java dens. Starbucks is not so popular with our youth for its coffee so much as it is for its posh, hipster aesthetic. Elitist music creeps through skillfully hidden speakers, and the artists' albums are for sale nearby, along with alternative subject novels, both contracted with Starbucks with the intent to get the customer to spend even more money on its corporate machine.
I have noticed the invasion over the past few years; I live in a town where there had been none, then one, and now there are at least four, all placed a strategic five minutes apart. With this came something else, something far more sinister. Local family shops specializing in sweet treats, like homemade water ice and ice cream, all started going under shortly after they became neighbors with a Starbucks. Then it happened, the fateful day when, located across the street from the newest addition to the Starbucks empire, our family-run Dairy Queen went out of business. Gone are the worn red booths and shingled hut, aged arcade games and well-graffitied bathroom wall. But, more importantly, absent in our neighborhood is a location offering dollar fifty ice cream. Why go for that when you can have a four-dollar frappucino?
I do not like the burned after-taste of their java, or that for it to be flavored they must pump some sort of syrup into your cup. I detest being made to pay so much for a cup of simple coffee when, a few blocks down the road, Wawa offers three times as much for the same price and better taste. Most people, my roommates included, say "let's go for coffee" and then end up with some sort of frappuccino mess that barely resembles coffee at all. What I hate most about Starbucks, though, is what it does to the local economies and mom-and-pop java dens. Starbucks is not so popular with our youth for its coffee so much as it is for its posh, hipster aesthetic. Elitist music creeps through skillfully hidden speakers, and the artists' albums are for sale nearby, along with alternative subject novels, both contracted with Starbucks with the intent to get the customer to spend even more money on its corporate machine.
I have noticed the invasion over the past few years; I live in a town where there had been none, then one, and now there are at least four, all placed a strategic five minutes apart. With this came something else, something far more sinister. Local family shops specializing in sweet treats, like homemade water ice and ice cream, all started going under shortly after they became neighbors with a Starbucks. Then it happened, the fateful day when, located across the street from the newest addition to the Starbucks empire, our family-run Dairy Queen went out of business. Gone are the worn red booths and shingled hut, aged arcade games and well-graffitied bathroom wall. But, more importantly, absent in our neighborhood is a location offering dollar fifty ice cream. Why go for that when you can have a four-dollar frappucino?
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Tyler
posted 4/21/08 @ 9:15 PM EST
Just because you don't like the coffee, doesn't mean that other people do not. I love the actual coffee that Starbucks serves. I don't like every coffee they serve, because there are different groups of coffees that come from different regions, and some regions I do not like; others, I do. (Continued…)
Garhett Langer
posted 4/21/08 @ 9:52 PM EST
I totally agree with Tyler, if you don't like the coffee fine, don't drink it, but if you're going to attack Starbucks as a company you should consider putting in the facts you so neatly left out. (Continued…)
SBUX101
posted 4/21/08 @ 11:17 PM EST
ok, just check this out. Starbucks started in 1971 and gave birth to the industry. I dare you to find a coffee house that combined the roasting and making of beverages under the same roof before that time. (Continued…)
James C
posted 4/22/08 @ 2:50 PM EST
Perhaps it's not the corporate machine that has killed the mom and pop shops, perhaps it is. But my opinion is that teh corporate machine offers the consumer a choice, either go to the clean, sanitary, un-offensive enviroment of a Starbucks location (bland as it may be), or head to, as you said, the age-old possibly worn interior, complete with the, "well-graffitied bathroom wall. (Continued…)
caserah
Casey Impagliazzo
posted 4/28/08 @ 9:18 PM EST
I have so many reasons to love Starbucks, it's difficult to place them in order. I am a Starbucks barista who has been with the company since mid-2004. (Continued…)
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