Time for a Starbucks Boycott is now!
Fuck Starbucks. Their coffee tastes like shit anyway, and is ridiculously expensive. Now I can say something else.
Not only do I never go there, a very large number of people in my neighbourhood signed a petition against a former local business becoming a Starbucks, and demanding a zoning change. By the way, that Starbucks and another one nearby have shut down. Where I live in Petite-Italie, there are many cafés with far better - and cheaper! - coffee.
I live in Toronto's Little Italy, and there used to be two Starbucks outlets in my neighbourhood, but one of them lasted about a year and a half before closing -- and I can't recall the last time I saw a Starbucks fail.
Interestingly, I walked by the old site today and it seems like it's now another coffee place. Good luck.
Also, there are a few places in the neighbourhood to grab some java besides the one remaining Starbucks -- Riviera Bakery, Sicilian Cafe, the now-shuttered Nova Era... but Gord forgive me, Starbucks makes the best Americano.
Perhaps, but I don't like those... It is funny that quite a few seem to be closing. They are very expensive, with respect to some similar local cafés. They seem to promote mostly coffee drinks full of sugar...
How does one say "Unicorn Frappuccino" in Italian?
But you don't like an Americano? One of the local other places once took a moment to inform me that when I ordered an Americano I was really ordering a "long espresso". Buddy pulled me one, and it wasn't bad, but it wasn't better either. I'm not proud to like SB better, but to my taste buds, it's better. The only coffee I think I've ever enjoyed as much was from (of all places) Marché. They made regular coffee in an espresso machine and there aren't even words.
From Mr. Magoo:
One of the local other places once took a moment to inform me that when I ordered an Americano I was really ordering a "long espresso".
That person was close, but not quite, correct. An 'Americano' is an espresso which has been diluted with hot water. A 'long espresso' is really a cafe lungo. At Roma on Commercial Dr., they did not have brewed coffee. Every coffee came from the espresso machine. If you just went in an ordered a cup of coffee, what you got was cafe lungo. If you asked for an Americano, you got a shot in a cup topped up with hot water.
The whole thing gets a bit overblown, I think. Most coffee drinkers would have a hard time determining anything from a blind taste test. That doesn't stop them from developing very firm ideas about what they like. Me, I like my cafe lungo, whatever they call it, but sometimes I just have a shot in the bottom of a cup that is then filled with brewed coffee. I like that too.
How does one say "Unicorn Frappuccino" in Italian?
"Unicorno frappucino", according to Bing Translator.
Well, actually that would be true, though I haven't got the foggiest idea what that is. Caffè San Simeon (the closest decent café to my place since Caffè Internazionale closed (a very sad day in my life, due to important past experiences there) uses only their espresso machine. I've had caffè lungo there as well as espresso, but the lungo just has more water.
Several of them have closed down here; I don't know why they are popular in some neighbourhoods and not others. The one at Jean-Talon market seemed to be used almost exclusively by people working (or fiddling around) on their laptops and other devices. It seemed busy in the summer, and then had few customers in the chillier months.
By the way, how is Starbucks in the US reacting to that racial profiling case?
On the way to the place where I am allowed to enslave material things on behalf of my whip hands, slave masters, and Pharaoh, there is very good coffee served at the Metro Station. I know all you slavemasters and whip hands have to have the best, but McDonald's is pretty good as commercial coffee goes. And a person from anywhere in the world is serving you. Of course they are scum to you, because they are proletarians like me. Otherwise you would have unionized them a long time ago. McDonald's did not exactly start in Canada yesterday.
Thanks for insulting everyone here. There are many people who boycott McDonalds, and I can assure you that it is not because we look down on McMerde workers. Your post is disgustingly contemptuous of babblers. I'm fortunate to live in a neighbourhood that still has reasonably-priced local cafés. I don't like pretentious or overpriced cafés, but I don't want to drink swill either. I make far better coffee than that at home, with my stovetop moka.
This neighbourhood also has a longstanding Levantine community; who arrived at about the same time (in smaller numbers) as the Italians, who worked on the railway alongside Irish and francophones. Many other Lebanese and now Syrians have arrived, and there is a large contingent of people from the Maghreb. There is also a significant Vietnamese presence.
I was at some significant demos around here for $15 and easier access to unionization. I'm not currently a union organizer; I'm more involved in tenants' rights. I can't just walk into a restaurant and "organize" the workers; that would actually be rather contemptuous of them, non?
Apparently Starbucks is going to close 8000 outlets for 'bias training'. I assume they won't be closed for long.
Starbucks to shut 8,000 U.S. outlets for bias training
Honestly, if it had been me, I probably would have tossed those two as well, but that wouldn't have anything to do with their colour. It would strictly have to do with the fact neither of them purchased anything. You know, when you're running a coffee shop or restaurant, you're not there to provide a nice comfortable place for people to sit around and take up space that could be used by paying customers. I mean, really, even if one of them had just bought cup of coffee...
At the same time, it's true that arresting people in that circumstance is a bit over the top. If it came down to it, I think I would have served up a couple of coffees on the house, and said 'Enjoy'. Perhaps they would have gotten the idea for next time around.