So whats your favorite drink there?! Well i work there and i've tried almost everything but soo far the best i've found are : Hot: Soy Tazo Chi Tea latte Triple shot Carmel macciato Cold: Tazo chi Frappiccino Passion Iced tea Lemonade
I don't really like starbucks, I go to and independently owned coffee shop. It costs a little more, but I think the product is much tastier.
Really? Most of the indy places I go to seem to be cheaper, I'd say. But I agree, I'd rather support the little guy who has better tasting drinks and way more of a good vibe.
I've heard some positive things about Starbucks, actually...that they treat their employeers really good, etc. Can anyone confirm or denie this? I just think their coffee is not very good, for one. Then there always seems to be a big line. Plus, they are expensive. When I complain about them to people, the fact that they are a big corporation usually doesn't come up until later in the rant. But if they really treat their employees good, I guess I can respect them...a little.
The other day I was talking to a friend of mine...and she said that if a persona has a tatoo, they have to cover it up when they work. One person she knows has a tat on his neck, and he has to cover it with a bandaid and the other guy has one on his hand, and has to wear a glove. I guess they don't like piercings, either. So that sucks. I guess they don't treat their employees very good in that respect. The girl I talked to first who said they treated them good was pretty straight-laced it seemed...no tats or piercings that I saw. So maybe they treat her good. But yeah, that sucks.
you're allowed up to two peircings in each ear, regardless of gender. facial piercings and visible tattoos are frowned upon, but some store managers may let it slide. however, you only have to work 20 hours a week for medical benefits and lots of other stuff, you get plenty of perks (say a free pound of coffee every week to take home, plus free drinks on the clock and a good discount off the clock), stock options after six months, etc. they give you lots of training, there is plenty of upward mobility, and they ARE good to their employees. remember that almost NO large employer allows ANY piercings at all on males and only one earring per ear in females if you have to work with customers, and visible tats are generally a nono no matter where you work. of course there are some exceptions, but when you get body modification stuff done you KNOW what you're up against business wise. if you have tattoos on your face or peirce the bridge of your nose, you should EXPECT these kinds of rules from your employer in most cases.... anyway, i like the passion tea lemonade, but made with hot tea so the whole thing is really warm. chai lattes are good, too...
Me too, but mainly just because there are so many nice ones here and they play really good music and are just in general nicer places to hang out than the local Starbucks. I really like Starbucks' drinks though. My favourites are either chai tea latte or gingerbread latte. Too bad they only serve gingerbread latte around christmas.
i agree, smaller, locally owned places are often much homier and more relaxed environments in which to spend time generally, and usually have at least comparable quality (sometimes a little better, sometimes not quite as good, but they have more character either way!)
I definentyl agree...the locally owned places are way more comfortable and definently a place to spend time in. It's an experience, not just a place to get a cup of coffee.
I like chai lattes and tazoberries with or without cream The indy coffe shops around here are actually a bit cheaper, but their drinks suck I haven't found any yet that I think are better, so Starbucks it is
I like the feeling of starbucks... its all friendsly and happy and stuff.. but meh i dono they look like a "BIG BAD CORPERATION" but really.. its not that bad.. hmm i dono
I remember Starbucks when they had only a few shops in the NW. I used to enjoy a double tall 2% iced vanilla latte (sometimes decaf! try getting THAT order right!). Then I got into their frappuccinos. But yeah I'd rather go to a cool cafe with a better selection of edibles and less in & out traffic. I've heard good & bad about starbucks, but like walmart they tend to impact smaller competing businesses negatively and therefore are like any other corporate entity, concerned for profits over all else. Let me tell ya tho... If you're ever in a foreign country where you can't get a good cuppa joe, and you suddenly see a Starbucks rise up in front of you.... ahhh, it's like heaven! That happened a few months ago in Thailand and I don't know what I enjoyed more, the great coffee, the sacher torte or the air conditioning! Man was that a treat!
profits over all else...yeah, but then thats capitalism, and it doesnt mean they dont still try to act at least somewhat ethically, especially compared to some of the other big corporations out there. i used to hate the fact that starbucks put so many smaller places out of business...it still is sad, i mean i like the smaller places better most of the time, but honestly if almost anybody had the option to have their business become bigger and more profitable, they'd go for it....cunning business tactics aren't criminal, at least in the case of starbucks (don't know about microsoft, phillip morris or walmart....) i used to believe that starbucks would deliberately open up shops as close as possible to other coffee places just to put them out of business. but really, it's rediculous - it's already a multimillion dollar business, joe's coffee down the street is no threat, and they have little to gain by deliberately putting small business owners out of a job. rather, store locations are generally based on the highest profile and highest traffic intersections/areas that the company can get a location on. the tactic is to go for where the people are, and make the product available....what other businesses happen to be around are generally of very little concern to them, which while i find rather cold when going into a new community, is not exactly unethical or malicious. after all, i've got to say most starbucks that i've been in have been clean and generally welcoming places, and the people really do generally provide good service. i've worked in several other food positions and nowhere have i seen coworkers go out of their way on such a regular basis to be friendly and accomadating to their customers. they also happen to have good products, and a dollar fifty for a really good cup of coffee isn't exactly highway robbery. they may get enough business to put other places out of business, but the customers for one reason or another CHOOSE to go there....they earn their business by being the most popular, whether or not that type of place would be MY first choice in going to a coffee shop. i remember going to a cool coffeeshop in toronto called the hotbox cafe, where you could go in, smoke your pot, order some snacks and drinks...it was a great place with good atmosphere, and the wait staff would come around and greet you, give you a menu, and take an order, but they couldnt be bothered to actually make it for you in less than an hour and a half, and all i got was a fucking fruit smoothie. i think you're supposed to order stuff if you want to go in and smoke, but honestly it took so long to get any service that i could have gone in and smoked a couple joints and just walked right back out without having to pay for the drink. a better one, but one you couldnt (blatantly) smoke in was in a little town near where i live...it was in what used to be a house, and the whole thing was like one big living room. the bathroom had a tub in it, and they turned it into a fishtank. some hippy guy owned it and he'd play frisbee in the lawn with kids that went there. i think that drugs were sold out of the upstairs, it was closed off (locked, i think) but people sometimes went up there. anyway, starbucks has it's ups and downs, but i think it gets much more of a bad rep than it deserves.
Now if you wanna talk about coffeeshops where you get a good cuppa joe AND smoke your brains out, I could mention about 100 cool places in Amsterdam... And guess what? THERE IS NO STARBUCKS IN AMSTERDAM! Which happens to be their European headquarters. This is because Dutch coffee culture goes back like 300 years, and they're not about to let a big multinational come in and change all that. The Dutch don't know what a double tall latte or frappuccino is. They serve coffee in tiny cups (espresso). You can't even get a "normal" cup of coffee as my brother discovered much to his dismay when I took him on a tour around the city. That's what makes Holland special & unique. This is what is being destroyed by the huge corporate retailers around the world. The very cultures that make such places fun to visit disappear when you see nothing but shopping malls with the same shops you can see back in Oshkosh. This is the cultural crime that corporations commit without ever realizing it. Fortunately the Europeans protect their culture and places like France fight these companies and prevent them from overwhelming their culture and killing small businesses.
Hey, Skip...Starbucks used to be small? That must of been when I was little, or not even born yet. have you spent a lot of time in the NW? It's nice to see you posting on the forums. Edited to add some more. One thing that does bother me about Starbucks...is they're buildings. I live in an nieghborhood with older homes and buildings in Portland, and I was with my dad going somewhere the other day, and we passed a Starbucks which we pass quite a bit. Really cool architecture on the buildings around here, and here's this Strabucks sign...and it just stands out like a sore thumb. Drives me nuts. lol
