vip in the city

Withdrawal

My local Starbucks has been closed all week. Every morning on my way to the Lincoln Center subway station, I come across at least a couple of people poised perplexedly before of the brown-papered window. Young professionals, bleary-eyed mothers and their Peg-Peregos, ABC Studios staffers, Reebok Sports Club members… the scene always plays out the same way: a double-take, a narrow-eyed reading of the posted sign, a second, sometimes a third, reading, and a palm shielded squint inside the darkened windows. How can this be?  Over the next three seconds: disbelief becomes dismay, followed by a quiet, slow-building desperation. Now  where will I get my soy chai frappuccino/half-caf mocha/nonfat triple caramel macchiato? Where? Where?!

Oh, right. Everywhere.

Incidentally, the changes “brewing inside” are to convert the Columbus/67th Street location to a 24-hour(!) Starbucks. Which, given the sugar/caffeine content of their concoctions, makes some sense.

Interesting piece in the New York Times  on the coffee bars in Brazil’s Rio de Janiero, a country whose total coffee consumption is second only to the United States. Naturally, SBUX is all over that, opening its first two shops in São Paulo last November, making Brazil the 38th country to host the chain.

Resistance is futile.

There are 2 Comments ... Withdrawal

Qsoz
March 26, 2007

I knew it! Trekker! Trekkie!

vipnyc
March 27, 2007

I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about.

Go for it ...