A Grande Latte never fails to awake my otherwise retarded and dull brain. But of course, you don't have to get a Latte in the Starbuck's. A Starbuck's and a Royal Cafe's tastes not much different to me. Hey, don't get me wrong, this article is not intended to be an eulogy for either Latte or the Starbuck's.
Liping threw a question at us: how soon do you think Starbuck's will go out of business? What a question! I was stunned for we just watched a brief video about how Starbuck's created a business model and a wave of coffee culture awareness globally! The class went quiet and nobody dared to give an answer. Seeing this, he asked another question: how often do you go to the Starbuck's? Carol, Grace? (We were two sitting closest to him.) How could I tell him that I go there almost everyday that an alarming amount of money of mine went to the Starbuck's yet I am addicted to it? Still, nobody answered. "I believe it would go downhill shortly,within at most 5 years. After all, who would like to pay a coffee at $3-$4 dollars? I would prefer a coffee at $1.00 in a gas station", he commented. Only me and Carol protested his prediction (maybe because others were international students who didn't go to the Starbuck's often or maybe they agreed with it). I was shocked by how much Liping did not know about American's coffee culture and coffee prices. Yes, a Grande Latte is $3.4, but a Grande expresso is only $1.5! Besides, they are only a few cents more expensive than those sold in other cafes!
Abruptly, a lot of words and sentences all came into my mind, suffocating me to death. I didn't want to argue with him in class. On the other hand, how was I able to verbaliz my experiences and let him feel the same experiences in the same way! To me, a cup of Latte in the Starbuck's was a refreshing, cozy and hearty moment, keeping me wondering my life could be lead in such an easy and light way in the voice of Norah Jone's. Just as what was revealed by the video, a lot of people working in the Starbuck's were graphic desingers. Graphic designers in a corporation selling coffee! Apparently, what the Starbuck's strived for was the creation of an experience-aromatic, invigorating, lively,cultural, etc. I was always so eager to read"the way I see the world" on the back side of the cup. All ingredients combined integratedly to create an experience with an esentially middle-class taste. I'm not defending this taste nor do I allow myself blinded by this superficiality of middle-class life. But I still treasure the feeling sipping a Green Tea Frappuccino, looking at designed coffee cups and pots with pretty graphs, browsing CDs, in a Starbuck's.
The class I took with Dr.Liping Cai was in the fall of 2005. It seems that the Starbuck's is still doing well. Liping might be right - it will go downhill in a short period. Or he might be wrong. Who cares? The event simply illustrated too much obssesive concerns on business/money issues and too little on human dimension- a big part of the reason that I left Purdue.
1 comment:
in fact, Starbuck's has come into the Summer Palace, which has aroused a lot of controversy. i have not seen any signals of its going out of business. there is in fact one close to my office, though i have never tried the coffee there. after browsing Grace's blog,i have decided to go there sometime.
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