Our college-aged daughter was hardest it. She acted as if it was the end of the world. When my wife asked her if there wasn’t a coffee place where she goes to school, she replied, “Yes, but it is way too expensive.” I have to wonder how expensive it is if it makes Starbucks reasonable.

I’ve been a coffee drinker for many, many more years than Starbucks has been around. Regular old coffee tastes just fine to me. I don’t need any fancy coffee to satisfy me.

Starbucks is coffee for people who don’t really drink coffee.

I really hope Starbucks hangs around for a few more decades, and “The Way I See It” slogans aside, I see little-to-nothing liberal about it. To me, it’s a place to squat endlessly with a newspaper and a laptop.

I do see lots of signs that I’m not the ideal clientele.

I ask for coffee…just plain old coffee…that requires explaining. Shouldn’t, but it does.

I ask for it in a mug. Not a paper cup, but a mug. That requires explaining.

No room for cream. Cream is for pussies. Shouldn’t require explaining, but it does.

And a newspaper. Not that stupid birdcage liner from New York.

I don’t understand what’s going on with Starbucks because I’ve never understood ordering beverages out of an anticipation of what others are going to think about you ordering it. Maybe that’s the whole problem. When you live your life for the purpose of pleasing others, you become ignorant of what’s going to happen to you, and any clues you could use to figure out what’s going to happen to you. You’ve surrendered all your foresight in such matters.

Then, they got popular and had to expand everywhere.

I swear, I was in a mall in Ohio and there was a Starbucks shop on the upper floor, and on the lower level was a Starbucks kiosk – within eye shot of the shop! The larger they got, the worse the product became.

Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe it will force them to go back to what made them good in the beginning. Maybe all of America needs a bit of this – tough times to make us realize what made us great to begin with, and it wasn’t government bailouts.

And it mostly worked–not everybody either imports Dublin Dr. Pepper or Jones, or Mexican Coke, or drinks iced tea.

As for the “atmosphere” . . . well, I never bought into the snooty bit (I’ve never been in one that was “like that” and all my baristas were friendly and cheerful, offering me a porcelain cup if they knew I was there for business) and I thought the McDonald’s commercials making fun of it were hilarious. However, when I’m meeting somebody to interview them between my house and there’s, I’ll either pick a Starbucks or a Peaberry. Why? Well, meeting somebody at a cheap diner with decent drip coffee doesn’t give off the right impression that you can actually make money doing what I’m doing. Yes, I’m buying somebody a $4 cup of coffee but they will probably make me a lot more than that in the long run.

I’ve never been a fan of instant coffee. Too many bad experiences with the taste and the mess (I can burn corn flakes) to make me confident in my own abilities to make it at the house. My husband can make a mean cup of coffee but since I really don’t want a full cup much less a full pot of coffee, it really doesn’t make sense for me to grind and brew at home.

So, yes, I’m a little upset about Via. Starbucks was my guilty little treat that had enough prestige to give perspective team members a feeling that I’m doing well (my sales have gone up while the market’s been tanking so, yeah, it’s even true).

Maybe another analogy would be helpful. What if Wal-mart started selling Prada? It would kill the Prada image. I’m not saying the quality would change in any way but the brand would be damaged and a large part of the complaints is about the brand changing. What if you could get M.A.C. at Walgreens? Yeah, it would probably cost less but it would loose a large part of it’s appeal which is that not everybody can afford it and you have an actual artist helping you.

Snooty? Maybe, but not in the way you think. Don’t let the pseudo-intelectuals distract you from what is actually happening.

Gah, this is rambling. I hope it got my point across, though.