I like Starbucks.

Really, I do. I know, their coffee has a touch of bitterness to it. But you get used to that. In fact, you develop a taste for it. Or, as I have said before, “I like my coffee like I like my women. Dark and a little bitter.”

Not that most people who go to Starbucks order coffee. A “half caff, no foam, matcha with oat milk” has nothing to do with freaking coffee. I don’t know what that is and frankly, I don’t want to know. All I know is that when I’m behind you in line, waiting to order a small coffee, COFFEE for christsakess , and you’re describing just exactly how you need your Pumpkin frappe whipped, “a little, just until it’s frothy, but not foamy”. Know that I want to pick you up and throw you through the front window. Truly, I do…

…but I digress…

But back to the Starbuck’s itself. Their coffee isn’t their main draw, in my opinion. As a person who spends a lot of time traveling, Starbucks is a familiar oasis. I know what’s on the menu, I know that there will be internet. Starbucks is an escape from my hotel / Airbnb . It gets me out of my little room and into gen pop ( general population in prison parlance , tho there’s an experience I neither have experienced nor wish to.) Yes, I am quite comfortable with my own, solitary company. But I also think it is important to stay connected to the world IRL (in real life) as well, and I use Starbuck’s to get out of my self-imposed solitude. I also use Starbuck’s as a creative space. I’d say that at least 1/2 of these P.W. blogs have been written in Starbuck’s, as well as most of “Price Hill Boy” (my book). And yes, that’s where I am right now. Often I will barely touch the coffee I bought. I consider it the admission fee for access to this portable work space. And I’m not alone. So often I see what can only be called work meetings being held. People pitching products or jobs or MLM opportunities.

What I’m saying is that I value the entire Starbuck’s experience. Which is what has got me off my proverbial butt and blogging today. Because I’m noticing a disturbing trend…

The F#*k off Starbuck’s

What is a f#*k off Starbuck’s, you ask?

It’s a Starbuck’s with no seating. No area to sit, to socialize, to meet, or create, or just ponder the universe.

It’s basically a Starbuck’s that says ” buy whatever it is you’re buying and f#*k off!”

That’s a F#*k off Starbuck’s

More than anything else, this makes me sad. Are there other places you can go to have a drink while doing all of the things I mentioned above? Of course there are. But I have to seek them out. And then go there, not knowing if they are set up for that kind of activity. Do they have internet? Do they have seating? What’s their coffee like? Their menu?

It’s the uncertainty here people. The uncertainty. These are constants in Starbuck’s as I used to know them. Whether I was in L.A., NYC, Cincinnati, Detroit, Wichita, wherever…

Not anymore. Not today, as a matter of fact. There is a Starbuck’s right around the corner from my hotel here in San Antonio.

You guessed it. A f#*k off Starbuck’s. Dammit. So I walked the 1/2 mile here, with the uncertainty …

So consider this an open letter to Starbuck’s. Don’t give in to expediency. Don’t give into the drive thru mentality. Keep giving us the whole experience. Don’t cut us off half way.

No one likes that.

Talk Later,

Bob