Sudden realization...
I know it's kind of cliche to bitch about how there are too many Starbucks (Starbuckses? I dunno) around everywhere, but last I checked there were probably about four or five Starbucks in the entire state of Montana and most of those are packed into a Barnes and Noble. I just realized on my walk to work today that on the three block stretch between the building I work at and Brit's Pub, where I get onto Nicollette Avenue, there are four Starbucks Cafes. Textbook redundancy.
What makes that even more shocking is that no one in Minnesota even drinks Starbucks. They're weird like that. Instead of having Pizza Huts or Domino's everywhere, they stick to the local franchise, Davanni's. Instead of hitting up the Starbucks, these folks roll to Caribou Coffee, another local company. Instead of US Bank, they prefer Twin Cities Financial. So while there are four Starbucks in three blocks, there are also the Caribous, Dunn Brothers, and independent coffee shops to boot. Hell, half of the street level downtown economy here must be coffee. And yet, here I am jockeying Dunnell's Minnesota Digests and WestLaw codes? I'm in the wrong freakin' business.
What makes that even more shocking is that no one in Minnesota even drinks Starbucks. They're weird like that. Instead of having Pizza Huts or Domino's everywhere, they stick to the local franchise, Davanni's. Instead of hitting up the Starbucks, these folks roll to Caribou Coffee, another local company. Instead of US Bank, they prefer Twin Cities Financial. So while there are four Starbucks in three blocks, there are also the Caribous, Dunn Brothers, and independent coffee shops to boot. Hell, half of the street level downtown economy here must be coffee. And yet, here I am jockeying Dunnell's Minnesota Digests and WestLaw codes? I'm in the wrong freakin' business.
posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood Clark Bar at 7/12/2005 09:55:00 AM
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10 Comments:
Come to think of it, you're right. I think that MN was the only place I have ever been where S-bucks was practically empty at 9am. But with a place as awesome as Caribou around, who needs burnt acrid coffee from the bucks?
Good ole GF is getting it's very own Starbucks this summer... however I don't know anyone who cares much for coffee here.
Ah, the invasion begins. I guess living in Butte leaves me confident that we will never have a real Starbucks.
What a wonderful place to live, where independents are patronized before chains!
so I suppose I am just weird for living in italy, having espressos and proper cappucinos all the time in little, wonderful, stilish italian bars..and totally missing starbucks?!?! (you know it's that fruit juice icy thing they do in the summer--way better than italian watery granitas!)
is it really so,over there? the whole "stay local" attittude"? must be one very rare and sheltered haven..
BC, I think you have a new "ugly car" to add to your last. Check out the front of the Subaru B9 Tribeca. Serious Yikes.
Other than Starbucks, I can't even think of a coffeehouse chain that does business there. Starbucks is beginning to creep in there, but there is definitely an acidic attitude towards them for the most part. I think I read somewhere that Helena, Montana, has more coffeeshops per capita than any other city in the U.S., but don't quote me on that. If I were Starbucks, I'd sure as hell want a piece of that action. Junior year of college, our student government planned on putting a mini-Starbucks on campus but there was a big uproar over it, so they went with a local company instead. The next year, Starbucks finally got its foot in the door by putting one inside a local grocery store (it was pretty piss poor). Then, in patent Starbucks style, they went and put in another across the street. Seriously.
Anyway, it's a record to be proud of. A state with just under a million people covering a geographic area roughly the size of the U.K. with only three or four free-standing Starbucks. God bless Montana.
I think you could consider Caribou a chain, esp. since they have 100s of stores in several states. But by no means are they Sbucks.
And definitely, God Bless Montana. Who needs a $5 Mocha Frap anyway?
Three now??? Holy crap. Let me guess: Safeway, across the street from Safeway, and next door to Safeway?
Close.
Safeway, across the street from Safeway, and Last Chance.
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