Brewed Hot Coffee

The simplest drink you can order at Starbucks is a Brewed Hot Coffee. In life those people who drink Brewed Hot Coffee are usually very complicated individuals. The Brewed Hot Coffee drinkers don't believe in the Caramel Macchiato or the Strawberries and Creme Frappucino. What they want is coffee in its purest form, all the other stuff is too fancy and their lives aren't fancy, they're real.

So here I am again sitting in Starbucks like a fly on the wall, watching how the customers interact with the Baristas and each other. Some are on cell phones, some are in meetings at different tables but they are all talking.

~

Guy comes in talking on a cell phone, here is what I caught of the conversation:

"I really want to believe her."
(Pause)
"She did confess first, I guess she gets points for that?"
(Pause)
"How could she fucking do this to me?"
(Pause)
"Should I just stay with her and know that I have a freebie to cheat at some point in the future?"

Cheating is the topic of many conversations everywhere and I just so happened to witness one firsthand. Poor guy, you never really here of the guy getting cheated on. Are relationships the prerequisite for cheating? I mean why the hell wouldn't a person just stay single? It seems as if sex makes people feel connected. When men cheat their heart doesn't necessarily have to leave the relationship because it's all physical to them. When a woman cheats there is usually an emotional attraction.

The Name Game

No matter how busy life seems, there's always time to visit Starbucks. With the price of therapy increasing to hundreds of dollars per session, a $4.20 drink doesn't seem all that expensive. So here I am in Starbucks spending $4.20 for my therapy session. As I look around at the other customers, I realize that I am not the only one who buys into the "Starbucks Therapy"

The coffee drink doesn't do much for my problems but it feels good to be in the presence of people who like to pretend just as much as I do. Starbucks is like the new country club, except the fact that there is no membership fee and if you're not a prestigious member of the community or own a substantial amount of real estate they still somehow manage to remember your name.

I think that Starbucks has figured out the secret to marketing. They realized that everyone wants to feel like a "regular". They play the "Name Game". When I am standing in line and I get up to the counter and the barista knows that I want a Grande, Iced, White Chocolate Mocha, it makes me feel warm inside after I've been dealing with such a cold, cold world. Even without owning stock, the customers feel like they have a vested interest in the company.

Why spend the extra money for coffee? Because you pay for the experience not the coffee