Crypto-gentrification coding: "I hear a rumor there's a Starbucks being put in soon"

y r teh gaze always crusin @ starbux!?!?!?

XPOST!!!!

If I recall correctly Starbucks coffee is cheaper oz. for oz. than Dunkin Donuts. But Dunkin Donuts lacks pretension and makes up for it with an early '90s day-glo color scheme and a superior font.

WHAT WAS THIS?

AND NOT TASTING LIKE MONKEY SCROTUM.

Haha, Jon, this (plus the spacing above it) makes it sound like a RIDDLE.

"Starbucks Music of the Year 2010"

and see what happened.

But with the cream, and the sugar, and people actually smiling and saying hello when I order my Medium Regular Please...Mmmmm...

and i love them.

Last time I was at Starbucks (on a Saturday) there were a group (6 or 7) of white people (not all relatives I think) dressed like they were Mormons, Christians going to church or some other shit. There were 2 little kids with them. One of the older men had a piece of paper or a pamphlet with Chinese writing on it. They seemed to be celebrating something they had done.

WHAT WAS THIS?

-- I'm Hi, Jared Fogle (6-grams-of-fa...), August 11th, 2005.

perhaps they were a family of professional bible translators who were celebrating one of the little kids' very first chinese translation, a rite of passage in their trade.

...and use the resulting paste as a spread which I place between two intacts coffee beans!

Call me pretentious, then. Day-glo purple and orange makes my eyes bleed and my heart hurt.

I don't like the font, either, but talking about that would probably make me sound pretentious.

XPOST :(((((

What is the other way around? I thought that your little thing was the thesis of the entire thread.

My suggestion was that Starbucks comes because white people are moving in.

I guess it's really circular though.

I guess it's really circular though.

Someone needs to dig up the 500 post Momus thread on gentrification...

altho, they show up everywhere, in exurbs and along highways along with every other franchise.

on a related note, we've covered the "latte liberal" thing, right? and everything assumed and connoted by that?

xpost:

exactly. another exurban franchise along with all the rest.

~nullification~

it's easier to view the growth of chain retail as part of some urban ecology when your place in the ecosystem is merely that of a consumer. When your hopes, dreams, labor, sweat, capital investment, and self-concept are torn down for luxury condos with ground floor yuppie restaurants with valet parking and a starbucks ... it feels different.

i have been to a starbucks once and it was no good, but my cuz lived nearby and thought it was great that he could wander a few feet from his yuppie flat to buy some barely caffeinated warm milkshake, especially when he was half-asleep/hungover which was probably quite often

he acknowledged the coffee was neither good nor cheap, and the precedent for local business was shitty, but 'what can you do' etc

There are 4 Starbucks within 200 meters of my flat and they are ghost towns thanks to a 9 sq metre space selling London's best coffee.

ha, i believe u have mentioned that one before (opposite a famous hospital right)

the coffeeshop equivalent of the office in being john malkovich, but yes, very good coffee

Go to 500m radius and it becomes clear Holborn is overrun by Starbucks (residentially of course it's very mixed and not totally overrun by lawyers). Only good chain IMO is Caffe Nero.

Nakh, I rep for that coffee place whenever I can! Only flaw: not open on weekends, but mitigated by Department of Social Affairs and Coffee not too far away, which is.

one time when walking down the main commercial drag in my mid-sized university town (featuring, among others: a Ben & Jerry's, a Coldstone, a Starbucks, a Caribou, a Subway, a Qdoba, a Chipotle, a Panera), I overheard a family talking about how nice and familiar it was to see a Starbucks when they were in Shanghai.

in retrospect I feel guilty for not, at the very least, snorting derisively at them

i need them for their free wifi tho

I overheard a family talking about how nice and familiar it was to see a Starbucks when they were in Shanghai.

― on some outer space shit (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 19:51 (14 minutes ago)

i guess many, most? people must think like that

really? I want to give them more credit than that! it just seems like such an awful way to approach life: "what familiar thing can I find to ease my alienation in this strange place" etc etc

or maybe, if there is something universally human and valid about this, I'm just sad that the particular form it took was brand loyalty :/

I'm Hi, Jared Fogle

there are probably some sad ppl who go to shanghai looking for opium dens staffed by kowtowing coolies and patronized by wise confucian sholars with flowing beards

familiarity vs exoticism

Born December 1, 1977 (1977-12-01) (age 33)
Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Residence Indianapolis, Indiana
Occupation Spokesman
Employer Subway
Height 6 feet 2 inches (1.9 m)
Weight 190 pounds (86 kg)
Title The Subway Guy
Religion Judaism
Spouse Elizabeth Christie Fogle (2001–2007)
Katie McLaughlin (2010–present)

http://www.subway.co.jp/jared/image/jared01.jpg

nakh — right, I'm sayin', in most cases it's probably a healthy balance between genuinely being interested in the new place you have traveled to, while still needing some degree of comforting familiarity... but seriously, Starbucks???

yea we all have our crutches, but i hope u will agree that this is a particularly unflattering one to be seen hobbling around on

i cant believe thats still on subway.co.jp after all those years

ya i quite agree, it's risible but not altogether surprising that some ppl will veer waaay in the direction of comforting predictability

next year for halloween im gonna buy a really big pair of pants and hold them in front of me and be a weightloss guy

you should totally do that

Yes starbucks sucks and is overpriced but I'm not going to berate myself for occasionally getting a drink there when it's literally the only coffee place near my work that is within walking distance. Typed as I sip the average tasting bev I just bought from aforementioned store.

"Pretty soon there will be a Starbucks across the street from another Starbucks!" - Stand up comedian, 1998

japan has like less than 5% obesity or something iirc (was in the independent the other week)

not sure if they need to give up the ramen for subway

wasn't that an actual simpsons metajoke xp?

meant within walking distance from where I work btw not, like, in general

re: japan: I think they just like silly american pop culture detritus

and Jared seems like he would translate well across linguistic and cultural barriers — a skinny guy holding up fat pants, what's not to get?

not sure what you guys expect Westerners to use as a bastion of comforting familiarity in China that isn't some kind of corporate establishment

i guess one of China's many hip independent mom-and-pop American-style coffeeshops?

reading the bible quietly in their hotel rooms

Yes starbucks sucks and is overpriced but I'm not going to berate myself for occasionally getting a drink there when it's literally the only coffee place near my work that is within walking distance. Typed as I sip the average tasting bev I just bought from aforementioned store.

― ENBB, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 20:39 (50 seconds ago)

ya, i think it wd be pretty stupid to significantly inconvenience yrself in that case, tho perhaps there was a better choice of coffee shops before starbucks arrived?

I don't think so. There wasn't much around here at all until a couple of years ago so nearly all food/drink places are newish chain jobs like Starbucks, Chipotle, Panera etc. Mostly I just make my own but sometimes it's a nice excuse to get out of the building and go for a walk. I wish there were other options but there aren't so oh well.

Starbucks is a godsend when you're on a road trip and the alternatives are gas station coffee or Denny's.

Thanks to a strict diet of health-conscious Subway sandwiches, Jared Fogle may be less than 50% his former size, but he is still 100% Jewish and delighted to be associated with the first North American kosher Subway, recently opened at the JCC.

“I think it’s great,” says the 28-year-old Fogle, in talking about the Subway’s new location and its foray into kosher. “I’m very proud of it, and hopefully, it will be the first of many to come.”

Although he doesn’t heavily promote his Jewish background, Fogle still feels a connection to Judaism. “I grew up in Indianapolis, and the JCC was a big part of my life,” he boasts. “I spent many summers at the JCC, so to have a Subway at the JCC means a lot to me.”

it seems that wherever there is are strong local coffeehouses or regional chains in certain neighborhoods in many urban area (peet's and groundworks being the latter around here), starbucks doesn't manage to get a dominant foothold. it's in the suburbs where they seem to be the only game in town (or one of two, including coffee bean.) obv there are spots in cities where they're incredibly successful, but not as much as they once were. i think at one point starbucks was actually a place that had some kind of credibility and now it's almost considered shameful to go there for whatever reason, or it's the "well there's nowhere else to go" choice rather than an enthusiastic pick. i feel like people get excited about even a place like mcdonald's, but not starbucks.

As his marriage to Elizabeth fell apart, their arguments became public.

"Jared has season tickets to the Indianapolis Colts games," continued the insider. "On some occasions, he'd argue with Elizabeth at the games, and she'd be crying."

The couple separated in March 2006 and their divorce became final on Oct. 18 of last year.

Court papers reveal that in addition to proceeds from Jared's company and his book, Elizabeth will get 60 percent of the sale of the home they own, their 2004 Volvo and substantial portions of the couple's investments and retirement accounts.

Since the divorce, Jared, 30, has been dating a series of women who accompanied him to Colts' games, and he's now got a steady girlfriend, said the source.

"It's a wonder he's stayed thin," added the insider. "At the games, he pours down one draft beer after another and his favorite food is nachos covered in cheese."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmfH6AvcCYk

thanks phil

Minneapolis has Caribou (passable) and Dunn Brothers (better) for chain coffee - no possibility of ever having to go to a larger national chain, plus many of the 12-steppers coming through town for treatment seem to stay and open indie coffee shops.

I drink tea most of the time and when I want coffee, it's got to come from an espresso machine. Even so, I wouldn't visit notional road trip Starbucks and ruin my record of never, ever going there.

There's also the classic Onion headline, "Starbucks to open in bathroom of existing Starbucks."

i feel like people get excited about even a place like mcdonald's, but not starbucks

True for me. If there were a McDonald's nearby I'd go there instead. Some of that McCafe stuff isn't 1/2 bad.

That said, there's nothing particularly wrong about Starbucks' plain old brewed coffee, and some of their dark roasts are pretty decent. I don't go to them nearly as often as I did years ago, because I mostly make coffee at home before leaving for work now. There are plenty of local shops around Cleveland -- Phoenix Coffee, Erie Island Coffee, Deweys, etc. -- that I go to when I have the opportunity, but they aren't always convenient to me. I'm not going to go 20 minutes out of my way just to engage in some culture jamming or whatever the hell it is anti-Starbucks people think it is they're doing.

Agreed, I'd prefer a locally-owned place more often, but where the Hell else am I going to use this Startbucks gift card? All I get from them is their brewed coffee, though I think they tend to over-roast their beans. About a year ago, the Starbucks locations around here stopped brewing regular coffee after 12 p.m., so if you order one, they'll use a Chemex to make it.

http://www.ecori.org/front-page-journal/2013/4/14/west-enders-cluck-approval-for-farm-supply-store.html

this is going on in my neighborhood. i'm not sure what to think of this whole ordeal.

i agree that unoccupied buildings can be a blight and i don't understand why anyone would prefer to have an abandoned gas station instead of a functioning business.

that said, tho, the neighbors to the space certainly have the right to challenge the development if they feel they were not properly informed, especially where a zoning variance has been granted for livestock.

but the whole backlash here -- the gathering of neighborhood support businesses and social media campaigns and crowdsourcing of legal funds (currently asking $10k in donations) seems weird and disproportionate.

idk, i'm moving out of this neighborhood in a few weeks so it's not even the most relevant thing in my life but color me skeptical

Ever wished you could sip coffee, wine, or a craft cocktail, plus shop for books and vinyl at the same time?

idk do we have a solid current gentrification thread rn?

Is this about the coffee shop that just opened in west Oakland

This one's more current.

Gentrification: Gone Too Far?

xp - no, Temescal actually, but lol

reminds me of https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/1011580_10153057124485304_397120286_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=349de38314585e88cb0876ef858e57e8&oe=5CF251B5 (brooklyn heights waterfront 2013)

what's funny (maybe just to me idk) is a guy I know started a diy space a few years back, near where this place just opened, and there was an article in the local weekly about his spot, which was pretty impressive, at least in what he had planned, and in the article he said something like, "i hope this place doesn't turn into a hipster lifestyle mall" (or something like that) and so this cafe-craft cocktail bar-book-vinyl-shop reminded me of that. Basically the whole neighborhood is turning into/has turned into a hipster lifestyle mall