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There was a time, long ago, when the best cup of coffee you could get was at Starbucks. Back when they hired actual baristas and used actual espresso machines. And then the great capitalist fist began to squeeze, and they started hunting for bigger and bigger profit margins. So they automated the coffee makers, streamlined everything about the store, and basically turned every Starbucks into a coffee-themed . Mcdonald's.
Oh, and they cut back on the pay and health benefits of their employees. Howard Schultz grew up poor, and any employee who worked at Starbucks got full health insurance and even 401K benefits, regardless of how many hours they work there. That was scrapped, and the new policy was to only give health insurance to employees who worked more than 20 hours a week, which was obviously a loophole that Starbucks would exploit like every other part-time employer does.
That was always a lesson for me about why the free market was a failure. In the end, profit always comes at the expense of quality.
Ahhh, but you're not taking into account how shitty every other cup of coffee was back in the day. Outside of a few coffee culture areas of the US, you were only getting weak-ass drip coffee at the diner, so Starbucks really was a step up.
Even by today's standards, I'd say it was decent. It was way more like a real coffee shop - the baristas would grind the beans, tamp it down, and make the espresso themselves. And it was only after Starbucks became popular that all these other coffee shops started popping up.
Oh yeah, for sure. Especially in the Pacific Northwest, there were better coffee shops everywhere. But Starbucks had to at least get close to them in quality, because that's where their first stores were, and they weren't beating them on price. It was only once they started pushing for nationwide coverage and huge brand recognition that they tanked the quality of their product.
They have automated machines that grind the coffee, pack it into the uhhh, thingy, and brew it to the desired strength all by pressing one button. The only thing the employee does now is whack out the used coffee grinds into a garbage can and put the (apparently it's called a portafilter?) back in place. They're basically fancy keurig machines.
Yeah, it’s a portafilter. That’s a troubling way to do things unless you don’t give a shit about the end product. Even the non-snob places will tamp and pull by hand. The snobby ones usually just have more temperamental roasts and will take time to calibrate for flavor a couple times a day.
There was a time, long ago, when the best cup of coffee you could get was at Starbucks. Back when they hired actual baristas and used actual espresso machines. And then the great capitalist fist began to squeeze, and they started hunting for bigger and bigger profit margins. So they automated the coffee makers, streamlined everything about the store, and basically turned every Starbucks into a coffee-themed . Mcdonald's.
Oh, and they cut back on the pay and health benefits of their employees. Howard Schultz grew up poor, and any employee who worked at Starbucks got full health insurance and even 401K benefits, regardless of how many hours they work there. That was scrapped, and the new policy was to only give health insurance to employees who worked more than 20 hours a week, which was obviously a loophole that Starbucks would exploit like every other part-time employer does.
That was always a lesson for me about why the free market was a failure. In the end, profit always comes at the expense of quality.
I don't believe there was a time when Starbucks didn't overroast their beans and make bad coffee
Ahhh, but you're not taking into account how shitty every other cup of coffee was back in the day. Outside of a few coffee culture areas of the US, you were only getting weak-ass drip coffee at the diner, so Starbucks really was a step up.
OK, if we're grading Starbucks against Folgers
Even by today's standards, I'd say it was decent. It was way more like a real coffee shop - the baristas would grind the beans, tamp it down, and make the espresso themselves. And it was only after Starbucks became popular that all these other coffee shops started popping up.
Starbucks may have been a mass popularizer of the coffee shop, but they were most certainly not the first
Oh yeah, for sure. Especially in the Pacific Northwest, there were better coffee shops everywhere. But Starbucks had to at least get close to them in quality, because that's where their first stores were, and they weren't beating them on price. It was only once they started pushing for nationwide coverage and huge brand recognition that they tanked the quality of their product.
I'm confused. I go to Starbucks like once or twice a year and apparently don't pay attention ... how do they make coffee?
They have automated machines that grind the coffee, pack it into the uhhh, thingy, and brew it to the desired strength all by pressing one button. The only thing the employee does now is whack out the used coffee grinds into a garbage can and put the (apparently it's called a portafilter?) back in place. They're basically fancy keurig machines.
Yeah, it’s a portafilter. That’s a troubling way to do things unless you don’t give a shit about the end product. Even the non-snob places will tamp and pull by hand. The snobby ones usually just have more temperamental roasts and will take time to calibrate for flavor a couple times a day.