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Only local shop within walking distance of my house is 1: a much further walk, like 3 miles round trip instead of 1 mile round trip, and 2: a place that stayed open during lockdown and became all weird and fuck-the-government about it, so it’s kinda tough.

Plus I’ve gotten to know a lot of the staff at the local Starbucks by name, because during the warmer months I frequently walk my dog there to get a pup cup.

Consumers are all about consistency. You can have a worse product as long as it is consistent every time. Ordering process being consistent is also important. That is partially why Starbucks pushes their terminology. The terminology also creates a feeling of being in a group and makes it more difficult to order at other places. Then add in gamified reward programs and a good phone app. Starbucks makes it difficult for local places to compete even with a better overall product.

It's hard to imagine, but in several places around the continent there aren't local shops. In even more there aren't local shops that are near where people are going. There should be - if we could Patreon up some kinda national chain of local shop coffees that'd be great but that's essentially what Starbucks did in the 90s the olde fashioned way.

Not defending Starbucks at all in any way here, but as an unrelated aside it's hard to remember that in most places in America there was a time before Starbucks when coffee was just pretty bad tasting everywhere. You could doctor it up with sugar or whatever if you had to, but there weren't espresso drinks. it was urn-percolated or pour-over coffee and that was it. Like tea - lots of water. There was "good" coffee from places and then the rest. The alternate reality we live in now where espresso drinks are the norm is kind of great in one sense. Anyway - not related to Starbucks doing awful corporate things for which they should be roundly rejected.