Anyone else sick to death of Starbucks? I am. Anyone else ready to scream if they see one more so-called Starbucks “café” pop up in the place of a comfortable, independently run coffee shop with owners who actually have a sense of style? I am. Anyone else want bitter, sometimes nasty home made coffee instead of the corporate over-caffeinated product that Starbucks is now forcing down our throats? I do, and I love caffeine.
Starbucks is taking over, folks. Now I know quite a few of you are die-hard Starbucks fans with total addictions to their product, but you must face the horrifying truth-Starbucks is the Third Reich of the coffee industry. They are forcing longtime favorite coffee shops with actual character out of towns that once depended on their simple coffees, replacing them with nightmarish duplicates of the same old Starbucks building with the same old Starbucks coffee and the same old Starbucks prices. And now, students of Skyline College, Starbucks has come for you!
If you take the time to lounge around in the lovely little lobby in front of the Gallery Theatre in building one, you will notice that “there’s something new at Skyline College” according to a single pink flyer in the window. El Capitan Espresso is “now serving Starbucks coffee” claiming to be “freshly brewed” every day. I was shocked to discover that in the place of real coffee, Starbucks has suddenly appeared. I tried to get a cup of coffee the other day and found myself staring at a Starbucks logo on a cup that should have been blank Styrofoam, but instead happened to be made of 100% recycled materials. I was confused… I felt betrayed. What happened to our mediocre coffee?
Within five miles of our humble community college, there are 14 Starbucks locations where you can get your frappuccinos, lattes and triple espresso caramel macchiatos. I know, I know… gas is expensive, you don’t have enough time to go between classes, your car is broken, you don’t feel like walking. There are many everyday things that keep you from traveling the arduous five miles to your local corporate-controlled caffeine dealers. It’s certainly convenient that Starbucks is now a ten minute walk away from anywhere on campus, but think about the character of the school. Do we really want to be sold as statistics on a Starbucks profits graph?
In truth, there’s probably no stopping these giant companies from devouring the tiny, old-fashioned businesses that used to thrive in this country. It seems to me that there’s a KFC, Old Navy, Target, Jamba Juice, McDonalds, Gap, and Hot Topic on every corner of every street I visit, blurring into one big blob of tastelessness. Are we content with the crap being fed to us by companies like these and Starbucks whose only concern is how much money we waste on them? The answer is yes, sadly, and this is clearly evident by the familiar logo on your cup of coffee.
