I too refuse to go along with this affectation. I avoid Starbucks as much as possible but on the rare occasions that I go to one, I order a small coffee and the baristas know perfectly well what I mean.
Mano Singham
Just another Freethought Blogs site
I live in the uk. For several years i lived less than a mile’s walk through pleasant countryside from a starbucks. I went there quite a lot, especially when my first son was born and when I was recovering from a catastrophic leg injury. In all that time i never pandered to this attempt to import stupid Americanised bullshit and, crucially, i never once heard a single other customer OR member of staff indulge it either.
Why do Americans tolerate this crap?
(observes craven pathetic capitulation to the rise of fascism over there)
Ah, yeah, i get it now.
Like all down-to-earth, hard-working folk, I just ask for a doppio espresso alla francese. If they don’t understand plain English, they can sod off.
@ sonofroj
Dude. You live under a monarchy.
@ ^
Your national anthem is literally:
Get some perspective is all I’m sayin’.
@silentbob
According to Freedomhouse.org, the UK has a Freedom Index of 92, the US has a Freedom Index of 84. What’s your point?
I mostly don’t care about the Starbucks thing. I think it’s a marketing trick to make you believe you’re part of a clever in-group. They’re certainly not the only food or beverage place to try this.
What always bothered me more was the incredibly stupid ads for fast food places when I was working at them. You know, the dumb ones that try to imply eating a burger can fix everything that’s wrong in your life and/or just make you happy. This felt especially egregious because the times when I was stuck working at places like that were not happy times.
michaelhuffman @5: Yeah, all the European constitutional monarchies, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, score well above the US.
I do the same as Mano, and probably with the same (in)frequency.
I remember when Starbucks sent out a pamphlet maybe 20 years ago explaining its terms so YOU, yes YOU could sound as pretentious and ridiculous as they do. I do think it’s an in-group thing, and I’m not a frequent drinker of coffee, so I don’t care to join their in-group. If you order tea there, they hand you a teabag of Tazo (and why does every Tazo type have licorice root in the list of ingredients?!?!) and a wax cup of hot water. So when I do get a drink out, it’s at one of a couple of local shops that do it right, and at all of them you order small, medium, large, or (if you’re going to drink it there), the option of a real teapot and not just a cup. They also serve coffee at those places, but I have no idea how good it is because if I have a choice of coffee or tea, I’m always going to pick tea.
Starbucks employees like me because I only order the easiest espresso drink to make: doppio to go.
I usually avoid Starbucks because I am loathe to patronize corporate chain stores whenever possible. But I do find their presence helpful: whenever I am in an unfamiliar location and feeling like having a coffee, I will look around for the familiar Starbucks logo then I’ll look across the street to find the locally owned coffee shop that was there long before the Starbucks opened up.
I think the Starbucks folks are quietly giving up on the tall-grande-vente thing. The few I’ve been to recently take my order in plain effing English without a word of complaint or correction.
@kenbakermn
I had a conversation with a barista about this while drinking my doppio, his opinion was that it’s actually a challenge because he actually had to do it properly rather than use milk to hide a slightly sub-par coffee
I think that I have had a Starbucks coffee only once.
I needed interwebs and I got a coffee to use theirs.
df #3
Australia is Constitutional Monarchy.