I’m just looking for a f*cking insulated lunch bag and I can’t find any decent ones for less than 12 dollars plus shipping and handling. I could go to a f*cking STORE and get it for cheaper!!! WTF!?
Archive for July, 2008
What’s in a name?
I’m unfortunate enough to have found myself living in a Red county, but this is beyond ridiculous. This ignorant man’s office is contracted for drug-testing by the local Wal-Mart and as it’s sign says, works with the Department of Transportation and DMV. I would suggest to anyone in the area, Obama supporter or not, to contact these local agencies and demand they pull their support. Our tax dollars do not need to support racism. Oh, and if we are going to split hairs over names, let’s mention that Mr. Trent Saxton of Placerville shares a name -and even a similar nasty disposition- as Trent Lott.
Recycling iPhones
this article here was the top story on Google News when I got home from work today which interested me a great deal. People who were lucky enough (or rich enough) to buy the original iPhones and can still afford the 3G are left with a fully functioning Apple product that has always attracted me more than the iPhone. For all intents and purposes, the old iPhone can be used as an iPod Touch.
Technorati Tags: products and services
The Starbucks Experience
I got a job at Starbucks in August of 2003. I left in 2005. Not because it was a bad company or anything, but because of a personal decision to go to school.
Any Barista can tell you about their first “Starbucks Experience” a training at an HQ that involved a comparative coffee tasting with Folger’s and the Starbucks Breakfast Blend using a French Press. Honestly, I was a Folger’s drinker until that day. I thought that 10 bucks a pound for coffee was ridiculous and there was no way they could get me to think otherwise.
Then it happened: to this day, I cannot drink coffee without a load of sugar unless it is a specialty coffee (not necessarily Starbucks) brewed to the exact proportions of water and grinds. Call me a coffee snob if you will, I call myself a convert.
At that same Starbucks Experience I was also told of the prospects of working for such an up and coming chain. Starbucks had yet to close its doors on any of its coffee shops and they let me in on a little secret as well. They were planning on building 6,000 more stores over the next five years! Starbucks stock would do nothing but rise! Oh, and also, despite the request of many to put in microwaves or toasters in the store for their pastries, Starbucks would never, ever put them in because it competed with the smell of the coffee.
Well, never say never, as toasters can now be found in many locations near you. In fact, you shouldn’t have trouble finding a location near year because if my town of 10,000 can hold three full-sized shops and two in-store stands in the Safeway and Savemart, there is probably ten in any urbanized square mile. But what has this saturation of the market done for Starbucks and why is its decision to allow toasters so significant?
Well, I’ll tell you! Because Starbucks is crashing and burning, that’s why! We can blame the economy, we can blame the Republicans for making Starbucks drinkers out to be liberal elitists, we can even blame Bear Sterns if we must, but the truth is that Starbucks has lost its appeal, built too many stores too fast, become its only competition (a house divided and all that) and was just plain arrogant in its success. And so, according to this article, Starbucks is closing 600 stores and cutting 12000 jobs. My Partner Number was 1149303. I think this sets them back about there.
The article explains Starbucks drop in patronage away with the rising gas prices. I suppose it doesn’t help that a Venti White Mocha and a gallon of gas have roughly the same value in many places, but I don’t agree that this is the only or even the main reason for the closings. Starbucks became too big for its britches. It may have worked for McDonald’s to build on every street corner, but Americans don’t particularly like that kind of expansion anymore.
I think there is also a trend in supporting local business here in America that has awakened in the last few years. Which is fine with me, I can’t get coffee and Open Mic Nite at Starbucks, but I can do it at Cozmic Cafe on Main Street. That is an appeal Starbucks will never have, no matter how many toasters they put in.
