I'm a total oddball..Starbuck's coffee.......

I made the statement about their quality from the standpoint of a consumer. As for their business practices I base that on all that I have seen and read about Starbucks over the years.

And I repeat:

Starbucks is simply high priced low quality coffee. It wasn't that way 20 years ago but it is now.

As for their business practices I would rate them in a class with Walmart........not all that good.

Now if you want to talk about individual employees and their practices I know next to nothing. I do not doubt for a moment that some wonderful people work for the company.

AMEN SISTER

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Where I work, we make Tully's espresso and coffee. I have tasted and compared both (aside from my workplace) and I think Tully's actually is better. They get your order right, for one thing, and secondly, the coffee tastes better.

When I went to Starbucks last, I ordered my usual, a 16oz hazelnut mocha. Since I also work doing the same thing (I didn't tell her that) I stood and watched her make it. She used milk from one of several pitchers standing a room temperature uncovered. Hope there weren't any dead flies and that the milk wasn't sour! Who knows how long it's been there, or how broken down it is from being heated and reheated time after time, YUCK! Anyway, she completely forgot the chocolate. I told her so, so she made it again. I watched her. That time, she forgot the hazelnut! I had paid extra for the flavoring (where I work, you get one shot of flavor free), but by then I was so disgusted that I just took the thing and left. Her attitude (I was polite, after all, I do the same thing, so I understand...) left a lot to be desired, and the coffee was a lot of $$$ for only average quality.

Maybe some of the places are better, but at $3-$4 apiece, I can't afford to find out. Oh, also....she drew the shots of coffee first, then added the milk soem time later...a big nonn in my book.

I was surprised to find the maxwell house, seattle's best and starbucks are all distributed by the same company, Kraft foods.

Some of you thought I was going to say halliburton...go ahead, admit it!

I was thinking that Monsanto might be the distributor, owned by Haliburton whose stock would be controlled by The Carlyle Group.

Makes Kraft looks positively angelic and altruistic by comparison.

After reading some of the posts on this thread and the other one on Starbucks, I decided that I need to comment.

If you like Starbucks coffee, good. If you don't, good. If you don't like coffee, good.

The purpose of a corporation or any business is to make money for its owners, nothing more. It is not to be confused with a charitable institution. Whatever a business does, it does because it is in the best interest of the business. And the best interest of a business is to make money for its owners. Nothing more.

If they sell free trade, organic, shade grown,100% Arabica coffee. It is because they see that as a way to make more money for their owners. If they offer health insurance to their employees. It because they see that as a way to make more money for their owners. If they rape the land and run life-sucking sweatshops. It is because they see that as a way to make more money for their owners.

They don't give two rips what happens to any particular individual, the corporation will do anything to survive. And to survive it must make more money for its owners.

There are no "good" or "bad" businesses, only profitable and bankrupt ones. The "good" one today will do "bad" tomorrow, if it makes more money for its owners.

End of lesson.

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Diamondtim

You can tell what someone thinks by reading the bumper stickers on their car. You can also tell if they think at all.

Don't say that to my incredibly masculine BRITISH husband. Tea is nectar of the Gods, if made the right way. That kitty-urine that you get served in restaurants, etc., is NOT tea.

Tracy

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I've seen the village, and I don't want it raising my children.

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Double tall Mocha every Sunday morning before Church here. Our family of 5 stops in every Sunday, gets everyone a coffee and a Sunday paper and we relax for a few minutes before we head to Church. They know our names and what kind of coffee we like. I haven't had a bad experience there or a bad cup of coffee and yes I do like good coffee!

I never go to Starbucks. Coffee is terrible. I don't like Dunkin Donuts' coffee either. Is that going to open a bag of worms?

When I was visiting relatives in Suhopolje, Croatia in 2001 a local 'hot spot' was a cafe bar, which served beer and coffee. Expresso-type brewed a cup at a time. Cost was about $1 USD - same as a beer for crying out loud. However, what I noted was the average monthly wage in Croatia is about 200 USD. Rather expensive coffee in those terms. To be honest this expresso didn't taste any different to me than regular black coffee.

But then almost all Croatians I saw over the age of 16 smoked. Sort of a national pastime. I so stood out as a non-smoker several people asked me why I didn't. I had a courtesy visit with the village priest. He was chain smoking. I make the comment in the U.S. they were once called coffin nails. He laughed and said they were called the same thing there.

P.S. The absolutely worse coffee I have ever tasted was on airlines.