...mostly because hardly any of them are going away in Austin. They are closing 600 stores, and in a town where a missing Starbucks would be likely to nurture a local coffee house, they are closing only 2 locations.HuffPo has published the entire list, and this is what I found:
6403 S CONGRESS AND ACADEMY (1007 S CONGRESS AUSTIN TX)
OK, this one, if unprofitable, is kind of surprising. It's located within an apartment or condo complex, so you would think it would have a built-in customer base.
14121 MOPAC and SLAUGHTER (5000 W SLAUGHTER AUSTIN TX)
This is way down in a suburban wasteland where they are ripping out trees as fast as they can and replacing them with chain businesses that look the same as they do everywhere - stuff like Walgreens, ugly fast-food places, banks, etc. There is a picture of it on this page, and says it just opened April 2008 - so BOOOOOO on Starbucks for opening a new facility just to almost immediately close it down. That sucks!
There is another Starbucks about a mile away from that one, and I don't object to it so much because it's kind of famous for being green. The rooftop is a landscape of native Texas grasses and plants which help to filter runoff so that fewer pollutants will run into ground water, also they collect rainfall for irrigation. Read more about it here and here. It's part of a new development near us, and I hated to see that whole shopping complex go in, but at least they have not made it ugly. It's a good area for parking and walking around (or getting there on a bike), and it's mostly local businesses (except for the Starbucks with the plants on the roof). What a contrast it is from the other ugly crap just down the road that they are cutting down perfectly good trees for.
Missing Starbucks? Support local businesses! We love Ruta Maya, Flipnotics, Bouldin Creek, Jo's Coffee, Spider House, Whole Foods, Central Market, Pacha, Mozart's, and there are plenty more we haven't even visited yet. All have their own personalities.
Tags: Austin - coffee - Starbucks
8 comments:
I really really want my own coffee house one day..it is my dream..my fantasy...my hope....(and it will not be a starbucks..nope..) I want to call it....the Enigma Cafe...
I love coffee houses...nice ones with music and books and reasonably priced muffins...
sigh...
e4e: that's a perfect name for a coffee house!
Coffee houses as a concept are fine. Actually coffee? I wish people would just stop drinking it. It serves no purpose, has nothing of value in it for the human body except water. It's just another drug people are addicted to. And I hate the whole "coffee culture." That's why I'm not at all sad to see Starbucks hurting. Any business who has to justify excessive prices by calling minimum wage teen workers "baristas" needs to go. So what was I when I worked at McDonald's, a chef?
I hope the whole chain goes belly up.
I *am* addicted to that stuff, for sure. I don't want coffee going away, just corporate coffee.
Starbucks specifically targets places that have independent coffee houses. A friend of mine had a successful and cool place in the Lakeview neighborhood in Chicago that this happened to. I have little sympathy for them.
As far as coffee? It's awesome. Not only is caffeine a wonderful thing, but coffee has, probably, according to research, even more anti-oxidants than green tea, cup for cup.
Corporate America is full of using euphemisms to cover their stink. My first job out of college with my graduate degree was the recently-shuttered Bennigans. We were made to use all kinds of lingo to "distinguish" us from others. A rag was a "towel." We'd actually get reprimanded for using the word rag. The expediter was the "QA" or "Quality Assurer." We were not waiters, but "Servers." But no matter how you slice it, it's still bologna.
Johnny - That's hilarious about Bennigans. These terms that places come up with to make themselves sound better remind me of old George Carlin bits on how language changes and gets softened and manipulated to influence people's thinking.
Okay, you busted me. I just hate coffee. But research indicates that the antioxidant effect of coffee is likely completed counteracted by other harmful chemicals in the brew. Not to mention that Starbucks and similar chains have played a big role in the fattening of America with 800 calorie drinks. I also personally believe that caffeine is a worse problem in this country than cigarettes and illegal drugs.
Of course, if all coffee houses disappeared, there'd be no place for emo teens and self-proclaimed artists to hang out and pose so I supposed they do serve a valuable function. :-)
Everybody needs a place to hang out, even emo teens and old hippies. Coffee rules. Sorry, but I fucking HATE tobacco, and I have plenty of good reasons. Lots of them are deeply personal. Tobacco does equate (as a problem) with many of the other addictive illegal (and legal!) drugs, but I personally would not put caffeine in that category. That's just my own opinion.
All the added fatty deliciousness, well that can be a problem. I just don't add fat to my coffee because I gain weight easily, even without whipped cream.
As for the health benefits and drawbacks of caffeine - seems like every week or so I run across a study that either says it's a major benefit or it will kill you. There's no consensus among "experts", and I don't think the facts are that clear yet. Same is true for many other things, such as certain foods and supplements. It can make your head spin. No wonder I'm dizzy. ;-)
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