A Fight Not Worth Fighting

Some people fight to save the rain forests. Some people fight to end world hunger. Some people fight to end the war in Iraq. Some people fight to end racism and discrimination. Andrew El-Khadi fights to keep the place open where posers of all the above mentioned gather. That's right, Andrew is fighting to keep a Starbucks open near him in Bay Ridge. One of the many Starbucks to recently close it's doors was Andrew's go to place for that jolt of java, and he won't stand for it. Andrew aims to gain signatures for his petition to keep the Starbucks open, and once he gains 100 he will present it to the chain's district manager. However, Starbucks has said the decision to close the doors of Andrew's Bay Ridge area coffee mecca is final.

I understand the idea that something doesn't have to be as big as ending AIDS in Africa in order to fight for it, and I'm all for it. The story of the man who stands up for what he believes in is a story I love to hear, and one which will never get old. However, with all the things in this world worth fighting for, why fight to keep Starbucks open? Why fight to keep the harbinger of the end of American culture alive?

Stabucks is like a disease. It spread all across the world sucking in innocent pedestrians who were simply looking for some place to relax and drink a good cup of coffee. However, what those people got instead was a place where the coffee really isn't that good, and it costs a crap load more than it's worth. A place where all of the employees are emo children who have an air about them as if they are better than you. A place where a normal cup of coffee cannot be ordered, and where a "tall" is the smallest thing you can purchase. A place where it's pretty much all luck whether or not you get the drink you thought you ordered, and a place where some sort of caramel or vanilla swirl has to be added to everything.

Despite the rapid rate of infection all across the globe, it seems as though we may have found the cure for the Starbucks epidemic. That's right, it turns out the way to close the Pandora's box that was opened and which led to a Starbucks being placed on virtually every corner is really quite simple. It's by using your head. Once you realize that the coffee at Starbucks is really not that good and is extremely over priced and once you get tired of the obnoxious struggling musician or poet behind the counter, it's quite easy to stop the spreading of Starbucks before it gets any worse. Just go to Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds where you can order your coffee in English, get it faster, get it a fraction of the price, and have it taste just as good, if not better. It's really quite that simple.

To be fair, the idea behind Starbucks is not a bad one. A place where you can go to relax and drink something delicious is a place that I will never turn down. However, when you can see multiple of those same stores on the same block in every city in the world, it's a bit too much. The air of an Italian cafe which they were going for is completely lost when the company just wants to put up as many stores as phsyically possible as fast as possible and make as large of a profit as possible. The dream behind Starbucks is a good one, but the execution was awful.

Good luck to you Andrew, and to every other poor soul out there not yet freed of their Starbucks addiction.