I'd have my soy latte at an independent espresso bar over any chain. Any day. Especially where bon soy is used.

Though when I visited the US, I noticed it is hard to avoid a chain as there aren't many independents in most cities I visited. Peet's did a decent soy chai latte, oops that's not coffee.

Agree with above comments about people adding weird additives to their coffee. I once had to go to a Starbucks for coffee in Melbourne because everything else was closed (over here they realise they can't possibly compete with an already established and dominant espresso culture, so they market themselves on their availability and convenience), and I was v tempted to suggest "what about apple juice?" to people who ordered things like "large, decaf, extra hot, fairtrade, white chocolate mocca's with <insert random flavour> syrup and three sugars to go."

To anyone coming down to Melbourne any time soon, I highly recommend Jaspers Coffee on Brunswick St in Collingwood - choose from one of 20 different coffee beans to be grinded for your coffee.

edited to add: Am not being anti-chain here for the sake of being anti-chain, but I just find chain coffee so bland, uniform and drinking at chains to be so clinical and devoid of atmosphere. We have Starbucks, Gloria Jeans (which donates some of their proceeds to an organisation I personally find objectionable so one more reason to avoid them), Hudsons (local chain), Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and the donut ones down here and they're all virtually indistinguishable in terms of their bland product offerings. There's also McCafe by Maccas but I think I'd rather drink out of a dishwasher. About the only time I'd ever drink at a chain is when I have no choice, such as the aforementioned example or going overseas where the native coffee culture is defined by Starbucks.