Starbucks is basically a coffee company that is located in Seattle, Washington. It is one of the largest coffee companies with 21,160 stores in 63 countries. I saw this company few months ago during my new york to durham bus tours. I have been visited Seattle for a business work. Its coffee service area is like an oval shaped.

They make good coffee. I like the new place. But, there are no places to "Plug In" at. No outlets at the walls. That had to be left out by design.

A Stranger writer manages to write a balanced post about Starbucks with only minimal snark and cynicism. I'm impressed.

@3 she's new, give it time...

any sonics' memorabilia on the walls?

The interior decor is depressingly uninspired. https://goo.gl/maps/K4Opb

Your fancy beans and brewing equipment don't mean shit if you're not trained. Is there any evidence that these employees understand as much about what they're doing as the ones at, say, Milstead & Co., Zoka, Vivace, or Caffe Vita?They certainly aren't at the Starbuckses I've visited.

Also: makin' shit out of Mason jars: STOP IT. Mason jars are for canning and pickling, period. NO, not even drinking glasses (except Southern Kitchen in Tacoma, they get a pass).

@6, well, it'll probably look a lot better when they finish i-- oh.

It's a Starbucks Super Coffee Shop Destroyer.

Make no mistake. It is the Death Star and Emperor Shultz will have you witness this fully operational battle station, wielding the dark side of the Bean.

Fuck this. So long Bauhaus coffee, art supply store, local ANYTHING, hello ruining what's left of affordable housing in Seattle. An yet, for some damn reason, there is still Club Z!

25 minutes to get a simple espresso.

@7 - It's a fucking recipe. If the equipment is getting the recipe correct then, no, you don't need much training. There is even a part in the article where the same coffee was brewed three different ways using different equipment.

This is hilarious.

I don't like my single origin baristas to go off-script, god damn it! I'm a commodity and deserve to be treated like one! If my UX is off by 0.02 microns at the Experience bar, we'll see efficiency plummet by 10% quarter-over-quarter and then my $165 french press cozy will depreciate in value. My rate of return is on the line! Somebody action this agenda item before one of the robot-line works offers a "loose" grimace or utters a snarky-and-deserved 'fuck you very much." We've got coffee to sell!

Caffeine is a drug

All coffee companies deal drugs legally.

If Marijuana were any more legal, meaning regulated like caffeine, then there would be a start-up company happening right now which would inevitably grow into a corporate monstrosity like Starbucks.

After that.. they would inevitably build a "Palace" where you would be in awe of the marijuana.

At the end of the day one is a bean and the other is a weed.

You just allow the company to put a value on what is "Special" about it.

Call it what it is.. Opulence on the backs of migrant workers who supply a bean to feed the drug habits of first world peoples.

Let's put the next "Palace" in Ethiopia! ... so those hard working people can enjoy the fruits of their labor by the wood fired stove of Tom Douglas's world class Pie Kitchen.. yay!

Now that's what I call giving back..