Starbucks

It’s a Starbucks in a Target. Right on par with any other Starbucks.

I never thought I would be a Starbucks guy but they got me hook, line and sinker! It all started in December of 2011, a colleague of mine got me a gift card during the holidays. If you register the gift card you can get perks, after 4 or 5 purchases you make it to green level. This level gives you a free coffee on your birthday and you strive to reach gold level after 30 purchases. The gold membership gives everything that the green level provides and it gives you a free drink every 15 purchases. You also get a free coffee if you purchase a bag of coffee. It also entitles you to free refills while in the store. The whole free coffee every 15 purchases seems kinda stingy at first, but not if you buy one of their $ 6 frappucinos. Did I tell you that you get a new card (a gold card!) it is like a secret membership — like the freemasons of coffee! My daily bill is $ 2.06 I get a grande (medium) coffee with room (if you do not indicate with room they will fill the cup to the rim, which is a problem if you like to add cream or sugar.
Additional things I like about the place is the service is always friendly (I never went to a Starbucks that had a grumpy person behind the counter). They also have a ton of fixings for your coffee, besides the regular creams they offer soy options (free perk of green and gold members) and they have powdered cocoa, cinnamon and nutmeg to add to your coffee. I have been a fan lately of adding a sprinkle of cinnamon with sugar to my blonde roast. Finally the thing that keeps me coming back besides the reward program is that they cater to the ipeeps (people that have apple products). They have a weekly download of the week that is free to their customers. One week it might be a television episode, a song, or a book. The next week you may get a game, photo program, or some type of cool addition to your iphone, ipod or ipad. Most of these apps cost money regularly, I had one that cost $ 3 regularly and Starbucks gave me this and a coffee. So that is how I justify my Starbucks trips on a regular basis.
Now let me get on my soapbox of why I do not like Starbucks (why they didn’t get 5 stars). The ordering/​naming process, tall is a small, grande is a medium, and venti is a large? Come on, stop being so damn pretentious and make it small, medium and large. Speaking of pretentious I feel like I should be driving a range rover, BMW, Mercedes to be a regular at these types of coffee houses. I am more of a simpler person and could care less about those materialistic items, however I can not blame them for their clientele. Additional items that they sell are a little on the pricey side for what you are getting. Even though I talked about the card in a positive manner, the newby’s should know that you need to carry a balance on these cards, you can not use it as just a tracking mechanism, which is a fail in this economy. If you are hungry don’t go to Starbucks, however believe it or not the ones that are located in a Target provide you an option of getting a breakfast sandwich from Target (they are not bad walk the extra 20 feet). While I am still talking about the Target locations, they do not open until 8 am, that seems a little late for the coffee crowd (ok I like to think everyone else is out of bed by 5:30 am). I just wish they had a separate entrance at these locations because sometimes I must pass them by due to the early bird penalty.