Why Has Starbucks Conquered the World?
It’s not your father’s library.
I went through the ACU library yesterday for the first time since the renovation. It’s incredible. No wonder students have been telling me about it with wide eyes and big smiles. Most of the first floor is a study area with computers (PCs and Macs) and . . . get this . . . a Starbucks. That’s right. A Starbucks. Right there in the middle of the library.
Starbucks has taken over. They won.
They sell a cup of joe for more than a gallon of gas, and people stand in line to get it. Plus they’ll add all the ingredients you know you’re not supposed to have and charge more. People still standing in line.
And it’s not just COFFEE. It’s Rift Valley Blend, Guatemala Antigua, Ethiopia Sidamo, Arabian Mocha Sanani, Komodo Dragon Blend, or Sumatra.
Now, in all fairness, I don’t like coffee. Not with chocolate, not with cream, not as a flavor in ice cream, certainly not alone. And I’m quite certain that blending in a komodo dragon wouldn’t help.
I would have made a good Mormon. (There is that tiny little Diet Dr. Pepper addiction, however.)
So you coffee drinkers — help me understand this. Why has Starbucks conquered the world? Is the coffee really that good? If so, what kind? (I met there a couple times with one of our youth ministers, and I can say that the bottled water is excellent!) Is it a gathering place?
While you’re telling me, let me add that sometimes after I work out in the morning I’ll swing through the Starbucks drive-through for a treat for my beloved. She’s not much of a coffee person, either, but she does like a tall (which I believe means “short”) mocha without the whip cream.
Price of the tall (short) mocha: $3.16. The look on the sleep-deprived face of my second-grade-teacher wife: priceless.
A friend of mine told me about a guy somewhere who goes to Starbucks every day and sets out a little tent sign on the table that reads simply, “Conversations.” He always has someone sitting with him who just wants to talk. What a great evangelistic move.
Starbucks and other warm and friendly enviroments offer what the church should offer…a place to be real, accepted and served with joy.
Mr. Cope,
It’s Cheers. “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows youre name, and they’re always glad you came.” It IS the experience. Yes we love coffee but you can get that at 7-11. It’s the experience, atmosphere, capachino compatriots and coolness. What builds starbucks is what builds “church”. Im not pro-consumer religion, but to not understand the market is to be asking “why aren’t we growing.” They understand their market.
Mike, if Starbucks is taking over the world, there could be worse monarchies. Far more than most, they take care of their employees, sell Fair Trade coffee, attempt to be a responsible eco-citizen, and provide a place for community and conversation. Sounds like a good blueprint for church.
I’ve thought for awhile, in fact, that Starbucks has become America’s house of worship. You have everything we’ve always boasted:
*icons (the mermaid)
*sacraments (pastries and coffee)
*community (good lighting, space)
*conversation (comfy chairs)
*music (always good)
*even tithing (tip jar)
All of which creates the experience Leonard Sweet references.
The all-time greatest take on Starbucks’ rise to world dominance came from a Bud Light Real Men of Genius commercial, which can be found here:
http://www.contemporaryinsanity.org/audio/rmog/Bud%20Light%20-%20Real%20Men%20of%20Genius%20-%20Mr.%20Fancy%20Coffee%20Shop%20Coffee%20Pourer.mp3
Starbucks is where we have one of our weekly “meetings”. Mostly it’s a place where we can be around people, and if we are interrupted and forced to interact with people instead of work on “church stuff”, then great. It allows us to do more important church stuff. For example, last week three of us were sitting around reading our Bibles and talking about nonsense, when a homeless guy (living in his van) sitting behind us told us he saw us and started crying because he knew that the Spirit was with us. He told us about himself and his background (quasi-rastafarian, with long dreadlocks, and Christian).
Personally, I don’t think the coffee is the best. There are other arguably better coffee places, like Dutch Bros. (which is primarily drive-thru) or Java Crew. Even Costco has good coffee.
There are like 11 Starbucks in Salem, OR (not including the 3 in Keizer). The one we usually meet in is inside a Fred Meyer. Across the street is another one. Downtown there are two that are a block away from each other on each corner. The others are scattered around town. Or, you could always try the Portland Metro area, where there ar over 180. I don’t even want to think about Seattle.
As a young adult, I began living two completely different lives. Look at me now and you’ll see a spiritual, fun-loving man. My life is full and my career is fine. My life wasn’t always this way, though. I used to drink so much I could not pass out. “My name is Jeff and I’m a coffaholic.”
My coffaholism began in my mid 20’s because of a “friend.” James was an coffaholic. He was always around, and he was usually drinking coffee. Although he never poured it down my throat, his never-ending barrage of coffee words terrified me. He was always wide-eyed and bushy tailed in the morning and would stand over the sink looking so content with that mug in his hand. That scene will forever be etched in my mind.
As a minister I always felt different from the rest of the world, in part because of my calling. I was terribly afraid of public humiliation. I didn’t want to be in the spotlight. I wanted to be invisible, but I wanted love and attention at the same time. I felt confused, alone, and lost.
When I moved to New England, I started to sneak my friend’s coffee. Being buzzed gave me some relief from the demons in my head. A month later I had my first full cup and with it, I found another way to escape from my feelings of isolation. Even though I knew what I was doing was dangerous, I quickly became a daily coffee drinker.
My friend, James, gave me my own coffee maker for my birthday. I made coffee with abandon. Irish Cream, mocha mint, and French roast!
For a while, I had a blast. I became popular, and was invited to Pepperdine. I was the designated coffee drinker at Preacher’s Meetings; a title I held proudly.
The problem was that I could never predict what would happen after I took my first drink. I never could recall where the last hour went. I would hear the ugly details from my friends, which usually involved some kind of hyper-activity.
A few months back the old coffee maker that James gave me finally bit the dust after almost 20 years. I thought to myself – now is my chance to break free!
But before the day was over another friend had replaced it with a coffeemaker from Starbucks. I will forever be enslaved.
I’m not sure that Starbucks does a good job of being “A Third Place” like the author of “Great Good Places” intended. He would lend more to the “Barnes and Noble and Borders” that have coffee places in them. His favorite place was the beer gardens of germany where family is encouraged to participate. Starbucks has made it hip to drink coffee and it’s all about marketing. Where else would a person go to buy burnt coffee?
Thanks, Grant..didn’t know if they sold Fair Trade..good to hear..
Mike, its you me and Joseph Smith..I can’t stand the stuff…
Mike Riley is right. It tastes burned. Yuk. I can make a delicious pot at home, fresh ground beans from Guatamala, for the whole family for less than half the price of one “tall” at Starbucks. I can put it in a travel mug and take it in the car if I want to. But I like being able to live my life without a cup of coffee in my hand.
The shop sure smelled good when I went in there a couple of times.
Tom Hanks has an excellent quote in “You’ve Got Mail” that explains the whole Starbucks thing. Well explains part of it anyway. I’m not a good movie quoter but I’ll try to go find it somewhere…unless someone has already talked aboutit in one of the 56 comments before me!
Hard to imagine the ACU library with a Starbucks… Couldn’t even get a Diet Coke there back in the day…..
If you haven’t read it yet, you need to follow the link below. Coffee, the New Health Food? is an outstanding article written by a real doctor (not just someone who plays on on TV and not a Ph.D.) and it will make you feel guilty if you don’t drink coffee. Treat your body right!!
http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/80/96454.htm
Starbucks– whatever. Yeah I like it, but I also drink coffee from Alsups and you know what that tastes like!
Ultimately, the Health benefits are the same!
I should have said it was “reviewed” by a real doctor… sorry!
Community.
Coffee.
Caffine.
And on the 8th day God made Starbucks…Thank God for Starbucks. I hear of Christians, churches all over the country that are meeting at Starbucks for Christian Conversation, and Bible Study. Why? Less intemidating enviornment that a Church building. The aroma, the sounds, the atmosphere, and caffeine.
Vinti Carmel Breve Latte $6.00
Extra Shot of Espresso $1.00
Great Opportunity to Share Your Faith With Others Priceless.
I am not a coffee drinker either. However, I LOVE Starbucks. I live in Portland in a neighborhood which happens to include the first residential Starbucks ever opened. Yes, that’s right – it’s right on the corner smack dab in the middle of our neighborhood. Everyone goes there just to hang out.
But what I most love about Starbucks is their commitment to be part of our community which involves donating their time and money. They are constant contributors to our school – they send their employees to volunteer at our carnival and other events, and they donate coffee to almost every event the school or neighborhood is involved in.
Love Starbucks… for many of the same reasons already mentioned. I was very disappointed a year or so ago when I saw the fat and calorie contents of several of the beverages at Starbucks. This brought new meaning to one of the comments that said it was a liquid candy bar! I now order a sugar-free, non-fat vanilla latte. It’s actually much better than it looks written out like that!!!
I also love what Starbucks has become to Grant and Anna Claire. He takes her there some mornings on the way to preschool and she gets a hot chocolate minus the hot. She is bummed out if they can’t sit in the big squishy chairs and I dare say many conversations have taken place between the two of them that wouldn’t have taken place had they not been sitting in the squishy chairs together!
How can anything that smells so good taste so awful? I woke up to the smell of coffee brewing every morning of my childhood. I’ve tried to like the taste and just can’t. My kids keep telling me that if I’d just try this-or-that additive, I’d love it… But, on a cold winter morning, Starbucks makes a great cup of hot chocolate!!
The also make a killer Chai Latte.
SG, we weren’t “allowed” to have anything to eat or drink in the library back in my day at ACU!!! Just think of all the profitable work that will get done in there now! Ha!
No matter what the “stuff” is…
If you put stuff in your coffee, you are not drinking coffee. You are drinking COFFEE WITH STUFF IN IT! (grin!)
Coffee is black. Anything else is not coffee…
Here’s a great web site for all my fellow coffee lovers out there:
I Need Coffee
Enjoy!
My husband says that adding anything flavoring to coffee makes it “perfume” coffee.
Now back to Starbucks, for me it’s about the experience. It does feel like a little vacation. But, I don’t have to just be at a Starbucks. Any good little coffee house will do. Especially the kind with a sofa and a good stack of coffee table books.
One of my favorite things to do is go to Barnes and Noble. Get a good Skinny Cafe Mocha with Whip Cream and look through a stack of magazine.
Now that’s a vacation for a working mom! Experience man, it’s all about the experience. Oh and the smells. And the tastes! But I’ve found that most people either really LOVE coffee or really hate it. Like some folks either really love cilantro or really hate it.
I began to realize that Starbucks is taking over as I was waiting in line at their store in the shadows of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Oddly enough, there were many more locals at the Vienna Starbucks, than at Cafe Demel-which is supposedly the original European coffeehouse from centuries past.
I just collect their mugs from our travels (not for their coffee-just their clean bathrooms ). As for me-I’ll take good ol’ Folgers any day of the week.
Here’s that “You’ve Got Mail” quote. I’m not certain I fully agree with it…
Joe Fox: The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.
Joe Fox: [exits]
Next customer in line: Tall decaf cappucino.
I go to Starbucks to ready Mike Cope’s blog….that and to get a caramel apple cider. No coffee for me.
Hey Karen! You beat me to it.
I have to say I’m not a coffee drinker but wanted to be so I could hang at Starbucks with the rest of the world, & namely the Moms I like to do stuff with. My first Starbucks experience was so intimidating that I just ordered what my friend did..paid 5 bucks and hated it! Then I met a tall white chocolate mocha no whip. Love at first sip. Joe Fox is partially right, it’s nice to have a Starbucks identity. Now I love the Mocha Fraps in a bottle too! HOWEVER when I saw how many calories and fat grams it takes to make me think coffee is good, I gave it all up! Sigh… I sorta miss Starbucks.
Lots about “community,” and how what Starbucks has done oughta be duped by the church, but it strikes qb at odd angles. Starbucks is fun, hip, comfy, gratifying (qb gets to hear his name called out in public!) and all that, but it requires nothing of him; he can come and go as he wishes, no questions asked. Just bring 3 George Washingtons and a few copper coins, and qb’s in the club. There’s nothing messy about Starbucks’ “community life.” The baristas are cool and friendly enough, but they go home at night and think nothing of Starbucks or the people who “live” there.
It seems more like an *escape* from community life.
Not that that’s a bad thing, sometimes, but calling it “community” is a bit of a stretch, and urging that the church adopt its model as an M. O. seems to cater more to our native self-indulgency than to our “missionality” (if qb may co-opt the concept du jour).
Cheers, by the way, was where Norm went to get AWAY from his nag, Vera (and feel the freedom to deride her mercilessly). Anybody wanna advocate *that*?
Having said all that, qb spent the weekend of the 5-6th of May in Brown Library, and it is magnificent, even when up to one’s elbows in Elenchus of Biblica. LOL! ACU is a place to be proud of.
qirritantb
For the most part, I fail to see the lure of Starbucks, myself, Mike. Even though I’m a regular coffee drinker. Could be my frugal genes inherited from my mom, perhaps.
People are certainly passionate about their coffee, though, in their addictions, as you’re finding here today with all the comments. I got a good many comments when I totally trashed gourmet coffee (in comparing it to a much more economical addiction) in a couple of posts on my blog a while back, starting with The Perfect Gourmet Food.
But that was before my younger sister Laura (who some of you would know, if I told you her last name) led me astray there in the quiet, relatively sin-free metropolis of Abilene and insisted we go to Starbucks.
I haven’t completely caved in, still thinking their coffee (I always order iced coffee with milk and add sweetener) isn’t nearly as good as my local favorite coffee shop (New Orleans based) PJ’s, and that their prices are really outlandish, but do indulge once in a while now as an occasional very special treat and to humor my sister when I’m visiting Holy Hill.
Starbucks in a library, though? I don’t think . . .
I love coffee but Starbucks is a little strong for me but cream makes it yummy. Hate flovored coffee, too.
I think Starbucks is the new ‘front porch’ – a place to meet in the community and talk about your day. Very welcoming.
I certainly can’t comment on Starbucks, because I personally would rather drink old swimming pool water than coffee; but I can say PREACH ON, BROTHER!!!
It really irritates me when preachers start questioning my religion.
I like Starbucks, really, I do. But give me Peets or one of the local shops around mid-Alameda County: Zocalo Coffeehouse in San Leandro, Frodo Joe’s in San Lorenzo, or that little place in Castro Valley that I can never remember the name of, or Koffeeheads in Fresno. (Okay, that last one isn’t even in the county, but it’s owned by folks I know from the College Church down there!)
What I don’t like about all of these places is the price. $3.50 is a lot to pay for an “experience.” I tend to go only when I’m going with other coffee mavens. Or when I’m at the grocery store, which has a SB in it. Or when I’m doing something else, and one is along my path. Or whenever the mood strikes me. But that’s all.
I am so not cool. I don’t drink coffee and I’ve never been in a Starbucks.
Forget the coffee. I could drink Vanilla Bean Frappacinos everyday. I hear the strawberry ones aren’t bad either. I just have a hard time coffee up the big bucks for a drink that will inevitably end up on my hips…
mmm coffee! That is why I LOVE the Great Northwest. I have even ventured to the original starbucks in Seattle.
But in all fairness, there are many other great coffee cabanas in Portland that leave starbucks in the dust!
I just got a hankerin for my 16oz decaf sugar free white mocha no whip!
Beaner, I can trump you. Just down the street from the Good Nite Inn in Calabasas where I stayed during the Pepperdine lectures there is a nice-sized Starbucks. One hundred and fifty feet away across the parking lot, tucked inside the Albertson’s, is another nice-sized Starbucks.
I love Starbucks. But I’ve been reading too many Greg Kendall-Ball and Travis Stanley blogs to be able to patronize them anymore. I can’t justify spending $3.00 for a Starbucks cup and $0.15 for coffee when I know that money could feed a family of four in Africa for a week, or dig the better part of a well that would provide water for hydration and sanitation and possibly save their lives, or some other quantifiable good that I would have to make up like these because I can’t remember the facts.
Cusses on you, Greg and Travis. You’ve ruined my addiction.
(By the way, I think a chain called Boulangerie in San Francisco actually beat Starbucks to the dark rich & overpriced coffee market by offering calorific Mrs. Field’s pastries along with it. But I don’t know if they still exist.)
The only thing that I’ve figured out about the Starbucks thing is why they call those things “Latte’s.” It’s because they charge a lotay for them. I’m a water/diet coke/sweet tea kind of guy myself.
Coffee: the modern day excuse to legitimately sit down and have a meaningful, connected conversation with someone without feeling guilty about failing to run around doing “all those important things.”
And thus I propose it should be a verb, as in “Let’s coffee.”
I like it because of the smell, the lighting, the free newspaper, and the coffee. In no particular order.
I like Starbucks because of the coffee. The rich, smoot taste of Verona is like nothing I ever experienced with Folgers.
BTW – a tall coffee is $1.52
mike thought you might like this.
Which Princess Bride Character are You?
Style without pretense, perhaps?
Here in AZ we have a competitor, Coffee X-treme, which was recently voted better Frappaccino Style drink over Starbucks… I would agree.
Yet I remember the first Caramel Cream Frappaccino I had ~ I’d never enjoyed my Starbucks experiences (I agree the coffee tastes burned, now when I get coffee I only get soy lattes) until I had the Caramel Cream Frap in Edinburgh. On the opposite end from the Visitor’s Centre of Prince’s street, there is a SB upstairs, that is large and open, with a spectacular view of the castle and gardens…. I was meeting two other American expats, which in itself was comforting — and drinking this delicious liquid dessert — luck enough to have snagged the comfy couch & chairs facing the view — and enjoying the company. That memory alone gives me reason to appreciate Starbucks.
All the reasons given above — a place to meet and have a beverage & snack for *under* $10.00 and not have to feel you have to rush out when you’re done… no age limit, no pressure to converse unless you want to, a place it is okay to sit and be by yourself and not feel weird, a place to meet “after” – exercise (3 hours one day with a friend), eating lunch – you’re full and don’t want to eat– but always room for coffee with a different buddy, dropping kids off at school, shopping… it can be fast or quick — it is what you need it to be, which can be different – (!)
Oh Mike, this post was meant for me to respond: Just ask the Danley family, I am a Starbucks woman. (Their graduation gift to me was, of course, a Starbucks card. ) Here are a few thoughts from a Starbucks addict:
1. While Starbucks admittedly does not have the number one tasting coffee in the world, it’s all about the experience for me. My best friend at ACU and I would go to the Starbucks at Buffalo Gap and terrorize the place with our loudness. Once we went there eight consecutive days in a row. Let’s just say we were on a first-name basis with every single Starbucks employee. And the especially smart ones always knew what I wanted- “A tall, non-fat hazlenut white mocha with whip.”
If you a maniac social person, like I am, Starbucks is great to strike up a conversation, grab a copy of the NYTimes and just chill.
2. I love the fact that Starbucks sells Fair Trade coffee and has important policies for its employees, everyone from the counter to the farmers growing the coffee beans.
3. Now, about the competition: there are a lot of private coffee houses with much more personality, better drinks and more reasonable prices. I visit those places as well. It’s just that Starbucks is everywhere. There are two in the city next to me in southern Japan. In the States, Borders, Caribou Coffee and Seattle’s Best Coffee are contenders for competition, but none of them have really got the Starbucks edge. However, I will visit those if there’s not a Starbucks around OR if I’m in the mood for a particular drink that Starbucks does not sell.
Okay, I think that’s enough for now. Except, twice I gave up Starbucks for Lent and that was INSANE.
Teresa
Mike,
I too have lamented the world-domination of Starbucks. My take on the whole thing can be found here:
http://russandrebecca.blogspot.com/2006/04/scary-lady.html
By the way, a friend of mine works at SB in the Maybee Library. Her name is Ning and she’s a Christian friend of mine from Thailand. Drop by and tell her Russ says hello.
Wow! I really got here late on this one. I don’t even like coffee but I love going to Starbucks with a group of friends. I am just a social drinker. It is just a fun place to sit around and talk.
Back at Harding I had a friend that worked at Western Sizzlin. He taught me a lesson I will never forget, “you don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle.”
I like the liquid candy bar comment too. It doesn’t even really taste like coffee. If it did I wouldn’t be drinking it.
My 14-year-old son became hooked on Starbucks on his school trip to Washington DC last summer. His travel group had a flight cancelled and spent 6 hours in O’Hare airport. Most of the kids decided to spend the last of their travel money on Starbucks – about 4 or 5 trips to the counter. They all came off the plane very energetic, but their poor chaperone looked pretty dazed. She has earned my undying respect.
There’s no reason to spend $4 on “coffee”. A plain tall coffee is $1.40 (no sales tax in Oregon!) at Starbucks and around that price just about everywhere else you go. The only time I get one of those expensive drinks is when my Fred Meyer Starbucks punch card is filled up and I get a FREEBIE!
Of course if I just spend $7 I can buy the unground beans at the store, and I have Starbucks for two people for about two weeks, which amounts to about $.50 per cup of coffee.
If Starbucks burns their beans, so does everyone else. That’s why the process of making the beans is called ROASTING.
“Coffee is for closers.”
Well, all this discussion, I will miss, but wanted to add this…..I am a TEA drinker and when it comes to tea, I much prefer strong tea. Which…BTW, I can get at Starbucks!
Coffee, tea, w/e go hand in hand, but I am surprised they allow it in a library!
J. Pierpont’s earlier post cracked me up. They just don’t make coffee makers like they used to. I learned to drink tea in Scotland simply in order to survive the cold. But it’s hard to beat coffee from the Kettle in Abilene. Or the coffee at Towne Crier. I remember my first experience at Starbucks a few years ago during a morning of Christmas shopping. After that one cup of coffee I ZOOMED all over the place, made quick decisions and was done in nothing flat. Kind of scared me!
I don’t know if anyone will read this, since I am post 97… BUT I feel that I must say something.
I don’t drink coffee or soda. I don’t smoke or drink either.
But I must say how much I HATE (yes I know it is a strong word) HATE Starbucks. I hate SB just like I hate McDonalds. For the simple fact that they pretend to care about their customers, but all the while they sell something that is HARMFUL to our bodies. There is a reason some Christian groups don’t drink coffee or soda or beer or smoke … because they are ADDICTIVE!
But for some reason we all think being addicted to soda or coffee is cute or funny. It is socially acceptable. I don’t understand this. Anything that affects our brain like alcohol or caffeine (even large amounts of sugar) negatively impacts our ability to talk with God. It colors the relationship, and it makes a graven image out of whatever it is “we can’t live without” …. I cringe when I hear people say that they “can’t function” before their coffee or that they can’t “make it through the day” with out thier big gulp.
Money makes the world go around… and that is the only focus of Starbucks…. money… Whatever they can do or sell to get us lazy fat addicted Ameicans to spend our money on – and enjoy it is the corporations only goal.
Our goal is to lead a Christ centered life, to reflect him in all we do… being a slave to a corporation is not apart of that life.
Woo-hoo, don’t hold back baby!!