Too Much Coffee

i just got off the plane from LA, I never actually got to visit any of the places suggested in the other post, i didn't have the chance to travel round on my own much, apart from one rushed business day in santa monica i was mostly bussed, taxied and occasionally limo'd (thats not a word) about ten blocks between the convention centre and the hotel. Having never been to the US before I just wasn't prepared for the total saturation of the market from starbucks, I work on a street in london with 3 starbucks, but almost every street there seemed to have one at least, and not only that but every restaurant, hotel and food stand was selling starbucks branded coffee.

the convention centre and several other places were full of proper starbucks illuminated signs but then when you looked closer you realised they said 'proud to serve starbucks coffee' they were just putting starbuck coffee through there drip filters

I woke up dazed and confused on the first morning to find that there was even a drip filter machine in my hotel room with a big starbucks branding all over it and 2 single serving preground packs of starbucks african kitamu

I can't quite see how there can ever be hope for the people of LA, we should surround the city with concrete walls and make sure it can never spread. God help them all!

is the rest of the US like this?

From what I remember, downtown Seattle had a ridiculous number of Starbucks - maybe not totally surprising given it's the hometown.

Seattle, and Vancouver for that matter, had loads a few years back. some crossroads had one on all four corners!

Dallas was also packed with them, when I used to live there it seemed like there was at least 4 - 5 in a walking distance from the apartment complex I stayed at. And that was really a bit of a distance from downtown.

this reminds me of a hilarious joke by Lewis Black:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9iMgSNrwv4
http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.co ... 9iMgSNrwv4

CakeBoy wrote:Seattle, and Vancouver for that matter, had loads a few years back. some crossroads had one on all four corners!

Just got back from that part of the world and there were Starmucks all over the place.

Even in Alaska in towns like Juneau that look like something out of an old wild west movie I saw the green Starmucks sign where their coffee was being served opposit the Red Dog Saloon..........

One thing I did notice was that the coffe and pastries were so much better tasting than in the UK and oh yes at about half the price we pay here.

Cheers,

DV

CakeBoy wrote:Seattle, and Vancouver for that matter, had loads a few years back. some crossroads had one on all four corners!

I really got into coffee making after visiting Vancouver about 3 years ago and having breakfast in the Artigiano's next to the hotel every morning. I have no memory of seeing a *$ sign the whole trip but there were plenty of Blenz on every other corner of downtown.