Cold outside? How about some Starbucks?
Today, much to my horror, I discovered that there are exactly 47 Starbucks locations within 5 MILES of my house in North Seattle. Now, many of us have been complaining about the rampant expansion of Starbucks here in Seattle for quite a while, so this may not come as much surprise. Upon further examination, I realized that most of the fealing of horror that I’m experiencing comes not from the huge number itself, but from the fact that I’m not at all surprised by this finding.
People across the rest of the country are coming to this same conclusion. Find your own Starbucks density here.
For some comparison, there are 99 stores within a 5 mile radius of my old apartment on Capitol Hill. Even this figure pales in comparison to some of the major urban areas.
While I’m generally in favor of capitalism and agree with most of the tenants of a free market economy, this is just beyond crazy. I think someone just needs to tell the world that there is better coffee out there than Starbucks.
Technorati Tags: Capitalism, coffee, Tycoon, urban jungle
January 16th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
So, the first time I went to NYC, the only place to find a decent cuppa was in a starbucks, or in some little cafe you had to suss out on your own. A starbucks was an oasis of good coffee.
So, to make the South Park point: Starbucks is where it is because it sells something people like and want to buy. I don’t choose to go to Starbucks, but I have other choices when i’m downtown or on Queen Anne. Sometimes, I don’t, and so I go to Starbucks.
January 17th, 2007 at 11:08 am
I have to agree, with the good and bad of starbucks.
I have been traveling to the USA since 1992, when I first came an espresso was telling someone to hurry up with an accent.
Now the word has been replaced by doppio.
But at least the ones who have been brought up on espresso in places like Sydney australia, ( 1950’s espresso introduced ) we can get our fix.
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During the 1950s, following on from the Government’s immigration policies, an influx of people from Europe and the Mediterranean regions found their way to Kings Cross, further improving its social and culinary ambience. Kings Cross became Sydney’s centre for eating out. The advent of coffee shops, borne on the back of the newly introduced espresso machine, were yet another reason for the influx of visitors to the area and the character of the area began to change from a residential to a tourist-oriented precinct.