"There must be twenty to fifty coffee shops within a four minute walk of my office and I would not miss Starbucks if/when the remainder are shut.

FTers who are addicted to SB, you still should get a fix for the moment... but you really should try some of the world's best, from Aussie shops!"

Why should you care if there are 1000 Starbucks within 50 feet of your office. Really, why would you give two sh**s?

Aussie coffee? I was in Australia. Coffee for the vast majority of people comes as crystals in a can and you add hot water to that. The only other place I could find espresso was at McDonald's and it was not very tasty. Lack of decent coffee was one of my biggest gripes with the place.

Most of the people who ..... about Starbucks don't have a clue about coffee. They whine about how their coffee costs $4. Guess what. A regular drip at Starbucks generally costs less than Dunkin' Donuts. Nobody really thinks about things that way. Want the best coffee? You'd be having something made with espresso anyways.

I live in a Mecca of coffee and while I enjoy the indie coffee shops, generally every size of Americano comes with two shots of espresso. They don't keep a static ratio of coffee/water. Starbucks certainly does.

In the end, most of the Starbucks haters are the same kind of people who would look down on those who are more educated than they are. Why would anyone have such hatred and ignorance to a company that they don't even visit is beyond me. I get the feeling that it is more subliminal social leveling against those who have more sophisticated tastes and probably higher incomes than they do. Just my impression.