Starbucked Quotes

“In one Starbucks, I spotted a young Frenchman wearing blue Converse sneakers, baggy Levi's jeans, and a red T-shirt with a giant Abercrombie & Fitch logo splashed across the front. As I watched him wash down his cheesecake with gulps of venti hot chocolate, I had to wonder: can't they revoke your French citizenship for this sort of thing?”
― Taylor Clark, Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture

“Indeed, thinking of the coffeehouse as a haven for intellectual discourse is difficult when the one in question operates thousands of clones, wants to sell you the latest Coldplay album, and serves five-dollar milkshakes for adults.”
― Taylor Clark, Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture

“Where else but a coffee-house could you pay a couple dollars for a drink, then fritter away four hours splayed across a couch, reading a book?”
― Taylor Clark, Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture

“But the raw sex appeal of the star coffee-fixers notwithstanding, it's hard to imagine a less entertaining spectator sport than a barista competition.”
― Taylor Clark, Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture

“Let us now take a moment to reflect on the plight of the Starbucks barista, that patient indulger of obsessive-compulsive customer requests, that tireless dispenser of forced smiles, that hapless victim of a never-ending parade of indignities. Any brave soul who dons the green apron must endure annoyances that would crush the rest of us - or at least send us into a cup-throwing, syrup-spraying rage.”
― Taylor Clark, Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture

“Terrified executives saw that they had a simple choice: convince consumers that your brand stands for Something Important - and thus that buying your merchandise is not just crass materialism, but something closer to an artistic statement - or fall into a price-cutting bloodbath with the generics.”
― Taylor Clark, Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture