Coffee Time! Complicated Beverages

[killerkat]

I like my coffee like I like my women, Creamy and sweet

i like MY coffee like i like my women,ground up and thrown in the freezer.....hahaha.....

[Ellis]

Like I said, I patronize both Starbucks and hipster coffeehouses, but I agree with your fundamental point. If you make the effort to patronize the hipster coffeehouses when possible, it helps keep them alive and helps prevent Starbucks from successfully becoming the same sort of monopoly Hot Topic or Walmart is attempting to become.

However, I do not feel like I am really a part of coffeehouse culture. Los Angeles does not appear to have one. I have never lived in a city which had much of a coffeehouse culture, although I have visited a few and patronized whatever the locals suggested in those places.

Starbucks makes a consistent and dependable product, but there are independent coffeehouses which roast their own superior coffee and I always patronize those when I have the option, even if they are more expensive or have quirky service. I am a bit of a foodie and Starbucks has no culture of importance, so I will always skip Starbucks in favor of a place with better coffee. I went to my local hipster coffeehouse in Los Angeles nearly 100% of the time until it was sold and they changed the type of coffee they purchased for their espresso and they refused to make any other type of coffee. They also used to let customers bring outside food of types they did not sell in to consume with beverages purchased there and, after being sold, they became very aggressive about disallowing that. Starbucks lets people bring in outside food which is not something they sell. I still go to the hipster place because I like their decor, but their clientele has changed and I go to Starbucks much more frequently now because they have a better product and are nicer to customers and I do not feel that either place strongly supports a culture important to me.

My local punk rock boutique used to be really at the epicenter of most of what matters to me culturally. Hot Topic encroaching on that has a large and damaging impact on the lives of a lot of people I care about, myself included. Your punk rock store sells the building blocks of culture and provides a location for that culture to rally around. Unlike Starbucks, Hot Topic sells an inferior product. Hot Topic sells a cheaper knockoff of the building blocks of culture and leaves you wondering if you should get a webcam so people could see your lower quality Lip Service pants.

Didn't mean to be so wordy and maybe this just merits a new thread, but I've actually given a lot of thought to which places I patronize.

That made my brain hurt.
You basically just said that since it doesnt really effect you, you dont care so much about it? Then you gave an example of a situation im assuming you wish other people cared more about...

[devil13]

How can you people drink at Starbucks? Dont you have any moral qualms with it?

like what? that my money Isnt going to Juan Veldez and his burro? Its just coffee

[ForrestBlack]

That made my brain hurt.
You basically just said that since it doesnt really effect you, you dont care so much about it? Then you gave an example of a situation im assuming you wish other people cared more about...

I'm not speaking for Amelia here, but to the extent that coffee shops exist as part of a culture, I do not feel that Starbucks undermines that culture. If they did not provide a relaxed atmosphere, a place to play chess, read a book, have a conversation, work on your laptop, etc. then perhaps a case could be made that they were a culturally destructive force, but they do provide all those things. Hot topic on the otherhand does not have all night parties for the coolest rockinest people in the back of the store. Hot topic does not hand out free beer to local scenesters. Hot Topic does not create the pleasant environment that is conducive to a thriving scene. So, if they put a 'competitor' or designer out of business, they they are destroying culture. Not to mention the issue of strip mining trends. Starbucks sells the same coffee they did years ago, while Hot Topic put other stores under and then when on to the next thing, leaving nothing behind for the people that once had a store they liked.

[motormenace]

when they give you free coffee, who's bitching? (no, i don't work there)