Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks

317 Pages·2009·3.2 MB·English

by  Bryant Simon

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Everything but the Coffee
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Everything but the Coffee
Learning about America from Starbucks
Bryant Simon
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States,
enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and
natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic
contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2009 by Bryant Simon
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Simon, Bryant.
Everything but the coffee : learning about America from Starbucks / Bryant Simon.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-26106-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Coffee—United States. 2. Coffeehouses—United States. 3. Starbucks Coffee Company.
I. Title.
TX415.S523 2009
641.3'373—dc22 2009006142
Manufactured in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100% post consumer waste, recycled, de-inked fiber.
FSC recycled certified and processed chlorine free. It is acid free, Ecologo certified, and manufac-
tured by BioGas energy. 8
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To my friends
Libby McRae and Bill Deverell
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
ix
Introducing the Starbucks Moment
1
I. Real Coffee
21
II. Predictability the Individual Way
58
III. It Looks like a Third Place
82
IV. Self-Gifting and Retail Therapy
122
V. Hear Music for Everyday Explorers
149
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VI. Not-So-Green Cups
173
VII. Sleeping Soundly in the Age of Globalization
201
Afterword
239
A Note on the Research
247
Notes
253
Selected Bibliography
279
Index
289
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I just keep finding myself with debts no honest man can pay. Luckily, no
one seems to want to collect, but they deserve some acknowledgment,
even though they would never ask. This wasn’t an easy book to write. A
lot of the time I felt like I was chasing a moving target. Just when I had
it in my sights, it was gone. I couldn’t have kept up this frustrating search
without the help, kindness, advice, indulgence, patience, warmth, grace,
and warm cups of coffee from friends, colleagues, neighbors, and family.
Just about everyone I know helped out on this book in some way.
They listened to my Starbucks stories and told me their Starbucks sto-
ries. And lots of people I didn’t know took time to hang out at Starbucks
with me or to write me an e-mail or talk to me over the phone about
what they saw and what they knew about the company and its products.
Their insights fill every page of this book. A few—like John Moore,
Michelle Isroff, Greg Beck, Dave Norton, Symbol Lai, and Laura
Paquet (who met with me on her anniversary)—deserve an extra shout-
out. Tom Sugrue, Josh Cole, Steve Kantrowitz, Sharon Zukin, David
Grazian, Beth Hale, Marisa Chapell, Keith Brown, Barry Altman, Beth
Bailey, David Farber, Jane Dailey, Glenda Gilmore, Heather Thompson,
Moshe Sluhovsky, Sarah Igo, Susan Herbst, Elizabeth Royte, Paul
Sutter, Beau Weston, Jonathan Morris, Bing Broderick, Michael Goldberg,
ix