slightly related to topic, I have always had a sort of love hate relationship with Starbucks.

1) the term barrista bugs me. Anyone I had ever met with that on their resume when I was a recruiter always seemed to come off like the type of person who would do really well in developing those canned responses we all hate getting from large marketing companies (and airlines) when we are, say, writing in to complain about missing miles or something, or why our bags are still lost.

2) it's always... well, calm-stressful in there. Lot's of people who NEED their coffee or else, but the place does have a sort of semi relaxed and cool feel to it, what, with all the couches and cool appliances displayed.

3) what's your apartment like if you need to hang out in an expensive and crowded coffee shop all day paying to use your laptop there? Then again, I always thought it was nice to smell coffee all day too.

4) My father in law actually said he thought the Starbucks coffee we got him tasted like real European coffee. He is Dutch, meaning coffee runs thru his blood (seriously, he does drink about 12 cups per day, even though those are non American sizes.) But my fear--and ultimately his even though he does not yet realize it, is that Starbucks plans to invade Holland and open stores up all over the place. Currently, the king of really great koffie over there is the very tastey Douwe Egberts (http://www.de.nl/) and lemme tell ya, a Holland that somehow allows Starbucks to win out over DE is not going to be the same tiny country! I fear for this. I really do. (PS: you must note that any faction of that brand sold in the US has never been as good as the real stuff you buy in Holland. I always pack in so many of those vaccum sealed boxes that US Customs has to stop and ask me questions every time. the stuff costs a lot less too, and I know I can get the imports here but they charge more than triple for it so I would rather fly over to see family again... to a land that is currently still free of the green Starbucks logo and style of doing business in the USA!