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Starbucks or Bust?

I can’t say I’m all that surprised about Starbucks closing 600 stores - given that we have fourteen stores within a two block radius of our house. You can’t turn your head in a modern city without seeing at least one Starbucks sign. It’s always depressing to hear that someone has lost their job, but aren’t there other neighborhood coffee shops in dire need of a good barista or two? Assuming, of course, that one has the skill set required to brew.

It’s no secret: I’m not a huge Starbucks fan (I’m a Peet’s man, through and through). Still, I wondered what my friends thought of the news:

Peet's is infinitely better, anyway. :) In other news, Starbucks leaves 54,230,918 stores open. - Me

Agreed. Starbucks is not particularly good coffee, as far as I am concerned. But obviously there are may that don't agree with me… - Pascal Sijen

Too bad we don't have Peets in Maryland - Aaron Brazell

There go 600 free iPhone hot spots (with a Starbucks card of course) - Steve Pribut

I don't really see that as a problem. I'm surprised they aren't closing more. I like their coffee, but there are just too many of their stores. - Eric Truman

Love Peets. There are 2 Starbucks in my town within 5 blocks. Overkill. - Chris

I've always thought Starbuck's coffee tastes cheap and over-roasted. A couple months back, they began retraining their baristas and upgrading their quality across the board. That's probably the right move. They're being flanked on all sides and can't become a discount brand. - Chris Baskind

it's about time. reminds me of: New Starbucks Opens In Rest Room Of Existing Starbucks http://tinyurl.com/cbrzd - Sean Savage

+23 for Peet's. Major Dickason addiction. - AJ Kohn

I've always preferred Seattle Drip to Starbucks. (no idea how widespred "the drip" is.) - Tim

i wonder if i should apply to a starbucks… maybe not… - Justin

I'm not a fan of their over-burnt beans but I've been forced to consume their version of coffee since they crushed all of my local independent coffee houses. Crazy, there are four Starbucks locations within an eighth mile of each other a few blocks from my house. - Glenn Batuyong

the only thing I drink at Starbucks is the Chai Tea Latte. That's it. - Chris Cavs

Hmmm, Starbucks makes the best coffee in Australia. Maybe Peet's should consider coming here! - Toastpaint

Just about the only thing I ever learned to tolerate at Starbucks was a double shot of espresso. I’m sure you have your own “Starbucks drink” - and you even have the proper order of the words memorized, too.

14 Comments

well chris this just has to do with the fact of starbucks. one day at school our eacher said to list five things you cant do if you where color blind at i listed 4 things and the for my 5 one i said you will not be able to see the green in the starbucks sign. and then the next day she wrote on my paper wow you must spend alot of time there at starbucks but really i only go there when i go get food from the store because there is one in there

well chris this just have to do with the fact of starbucks label.one day at school our teacher said to list 5 things a color blind person could not do. then i listed 4 things then for my 5 one i said you could not see the green in the starbucks label. then the nest day at school i get my paper back and i look on it and there is said wow you must spend lots of time there but really i only go there to get food because there is a starbucks when you fist walk into the store. so how can you not resist.

Starbucks has made a lot of mistakes after ascending to the top of the commercial coffee industry, and now they are paying the price.

They serve poor quality coffee. They take mediocre beans, roast them to charcoal so that you can’t taste the flavor flaws, and then let the over roasted beans sit on shelves for months going horribly stale before brewing.

They used to use 4 group La Morzocco espresso machines capable of brewing amazing coffee if used by a well trained barista. Instead of paying their barista’s more and preventing turnover, they got rid of those machines and replaced them with super automatics capable of consistently cranking out half-way decent coffee (assuming you had good beans, which they don’t), but never capable of truly good coffee. This let them spend less hours on training and allows them to higher cheaper staff.

To make matters worse, they were so eager to conquer the world that they bought entire chains of coffee stores and then re-badged them as Starbucks and left them open in close proximity to other Starbucks stores so that they competed with each other for revenue.

They then tried to fix this with gimmicks like a national 2 hours of store closures for barista training, followed by purchasing Clover so that no other chain could use their machines, followed by offering free wi-fi to card holders.

Note that they still aren’t addressing the fundamental need to use high quality, appropriately roasted fresh beans and heavily trained baristas. 2hrs of training is nothing compared to the weeks of training and hundreds of shots that real baristas need to pull to be good. /rant

Guess what…We have no publicly available Starbucks in my home town (Northampton, uk) The nearest one I know of is 20 miles away in Milton Keynes!!! we have a costa coffee and another one I can’t remember the name of, but no Starbucks!!!

I love their Java Chip Frappicino. Overall, I’m a fan of Starbucks, but havent been to a Peets yet.

I think for the most part, Starbucks is primarily a ‘fad’. When Starbucks was coming out, it was somewhat new. Of course there have been coffee shops prior to Starbucks. But it was like a modernization that everyone loved. Also, there being one at nearly every street, it became rather accessible. But as time goes on, I think Starbucks will have to either grow into more than just coffee and expand. Or they will fade away. I do believe that other shops will try to start up their own coffee like business and Starbucks will slowly begin to lose its hold on the industry.

But with there being so many, it will be difficult. For fear of competing with Starbucks, some no-named business wont try to compete. I do not mind their drinks, but in time, it wont be such a big deal.

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Here in RI, they’re actually opening more Starbucks.

Starbucks is a relative newcomer to RI, given a market already saturated by Dunkin Donuts, Tim Hortons, Honey Dew, and others.

Not surprising about Starbucks making this move at all! The only thing I get there is ice coffee and in gainesville, that’s all we have. Too bad Peet’s is a more northern thing but I can always buy it in the grocery store like I always have. I feel sorry for the workers though, hopefully they will get something out of it.

Hey Chris, my brothers friend is the manager at my Starbucks across the street. I think he said they are closing them because of the new label, but I don’t believe that because wouldn’t they just remove the new logo and stick with the old famous one. I love Starbucks, and I am just happy mine is not closing down.

I luv starbucks. Hope the one near me does not close.

I like starbucks just for the fact that it’s 2 minutes away.

There are about 3 to 4 Starbuck building all around my neiborhood. Depending how far I want to go. Is 600 just a specific state? Or nation wide?

I have been getting Starbucks probably about once a week, and I have seen too many Starbucks. Its good that they are closing down some. Its just too many.

Although some people think that Starbucks is not worth coffee at all, my input about Starbucks is that they have a lot of drinks and food that my friends and even little children could even enjoy. I love the atmosphere of the workers and eating area.

What Do You Think?