The Starbucks Effect

An interesting article about my favorite coffee chain and my favorite beverage of choice (I am drinking one right now):
JS Online: News:

It is funny how I can relate to pretty much everything this guy says in the above article.

Starbucks sure has made a name for itself in the world of today. Maybe the folks at "starbucks" should get together with the guys at "Google" (if they haven't already) and do some "cross marketing".

One interesting part of the above article (which you can read by clicking on the JS Online News link above) has this quote, which I had to giggle about. The quote follows:

Simon believes Starbucks succeeds by "selling comfort" in an anonymous, often dislocating world. He says he has lost track of the number of times people have told him that when they traveled to a strange country, "the first thing I did when I got off the plane was go to Starbucks."

"There's a deep sense of unpredictability in the modern world, and what Starbucks provides a lot of people is predictability," he said.

What is so funny about the above quotes is that I actually have felt that way for some time.

A few years ago I took a 2 week road trip out west to The Rockies and the western states in the center of the nation. Everytime I needed to connect to myself and to feel a little more "at home", I would seek out a "Starbucks" or a "Barns and Noble" that carries the wonderful caffeinated substance and I would immediately feel more "at home". At one point during a very tiring day out in Denver as I was driving through the mountains west of the city, I was starting to get a little tired and worn out and as I came into Breckinridge, which was a ways up in the mountains...I saw a little yellow building that looked like a little cottage. And then I looked closer and I saw that familiar logo.....

Starbucks! I yelled to myself "How cool"....
I immediately felt rejuvenated by just seeing that logo and after getting my usual "Grande STRONGEST Brew" of coffee that they had, my return trip down the mountain was so much more doable than it seemed just a few minutes before.

Ah...the "Starbucks Effect".

That "effect" for me is everywhere. I drink it at home in the morning when I get up (as I am right now) and we proudly serve it at the restaurant I manage and my favorite bookstore here in Racine also proudly serves it. Starbucks is so fully ingrained into my life, it is like a "Best Friend". Sometimes maybe too much. Oh ooh...I think I just admitted that I am addicted to this stuff. Ikkes!!

(The Sunday News will not go out this weekend due to my having to work the holiday. I will try to catch up with world events and other misc. Commentary on Monday or Tuesday).

A Happy Easter to all.