Observations from a Morning at Starbucks
I needed to do some reading this morning, but I didn’t want to stay at the house to prevent myself from being distracted by other projects I’ve got going on right now. So I had Abby drop me off at Starbucks for a few hours while she went to some meetings. Here’s some things I observed:
Starbucks has international appeal. Coffee beans are not the only things coming in to Starbucks stores from the far reaches of our world. During my time this morning, I heard English in both the American and British varieties. I heard Arabic. And I heard Russian (in which there is, apparently, no indigenous expression for “Facebook profile”). Had I been sitting in a different part of the Starbucks, I think there is a good chance that I also could have heard Hindi, Spanish and Chinese as well. (I don’t really trust my foreign language lip reading skills enough to confirm. I also talked to myself some in Turkish, but I won’t count that since it just seems like it’s running up the score.)
Starbucks has acheived success in part by being able to appeal to even contradictory sets of customers. There were customers who were there for a quick drop-in or drive-thru and customers who came for a three-hour stay like me. There were people who wanted to connect with friends and who wanted to be surrounded in solitude. There were people who came to work and people who came to get away from work. There was even a guy who slept for three hours in an armchair. The “Starbucks experience” apparently fits all of these diverse aims.
The new cherry-flavored syrup is the best thing to happen to a Mocha Frappuccino since their creme de menthe syrup (foolishly discontinued a few years ago). But don’t take my word for it. By all means, go try it yourself. And indulge your inner-people-watcher while you’re at it.
