There Are No Starbucks In Rome

Why do American food and beverage franchises force their employees to face customers whilst clad in ludicrous theme apparel and branded baseball hats? Step into a Starbucks and you are immediately set upon by a team of highly strung short stops demanding to help you. Walk across the average Food Court, on the other hand, and enter psychedelic little league game gone badly wrong.

Of course, such demeaning dress codes are merely another aspect of the infantilism that has been introduced into almost every arena of American society. The fast food establishments that enforce them transport their clientele into fantasy worlds of convenience, fairy palaces of fat of sugar, where dreaming diners forget that the enormous mounds of edible plastic they are consuming is of extremely inferior quality. This is the land where Peter Pan is grounded by diarrhea and Tinkerbelle has terrible acne. The land where the word "value" means twenty percent more.

In Rome, the serious men who serve espresso wear crisp white shirts, black ties and black trousers, and sweeping linen aprons fastened around their waists. You feel like an adult when ordering from them. And even your poorly pronounced Italian will make more sense than the weird make-believe, mumbling language of Starbucks.

Comments

[ronald]

o the horrors,..we've lost stephen

[Fcb]

Do not be so harsh on the old Starbucks. The Romans, bless 'em, have their own idea of what coffee is, and not too shabby at that.

But for the lesser fortunates of the British Isles, our idea of coffee before Starbucks was the syrupy and Imperialist Camp Coffee or granulated fishfood Nescafe. For hoity-toity Sloanies there was "Gold Blend" and the smugliest commercials ever to smear a television.

First time I visited a Starbucks I had to leave it empty handed - I had no conception what those things on the menu were.

[DarkoV]

What coffee and semi-dressed denizens of the slimy fishy deep have to do with each other was never fully understood. There's a local child care center titled Drop-a-Tot. I drive by every day thinking there will be a "CLOSED FOR BIZYNESS" sign posted. Nope. Parents dropping kids is what I see.

[KittenEars]

Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with having a less than serious form of escapism when drinking a cup of coffee. Has the world become so serious that it grudges such things. Surely slight forms of escapism would be favoured when everyhing else in the world is so serious considering economic and social crisises everywhere. Why can't trivial things be light hearted?

[steve booth]

I found you on google looking for "Starbucks Rome". I guess there are no Starbucks in Rome? Bummer. Call me a barbarian, but I like my drip!
By the way, I like your way with words, including...
'"value" means twenty percent more'... I couldn't agree more, and that's why there are a lot of fat Americans (but not me). Thanks for the laugh. steve booth

[american fez]

Thanks for your comments, and I believe you may be in luck! It's a couple of years since I wrote this and I believe there are now a few Starbucks dotted around the center of Rome. They are not ubiquitous, but they are there.

[Nathan Displays]

Personally I do not think there is a severe form of escapism is something wrong with less while drinking a cup of coffee. World that such things so serious complaint. Mild forms of escapism in the world and certainly would be favored in everyones hung seriously consider the economic and social crises everywhere. Why can not little things lightly?

[wool]

What a fantastic post! I am just a beginner in community management/marketing media and trying to learn how to do it well - resources like this blog are highly helpful. As our company is based in the US, it's all a bit new to us. The example above is something that I worry about as well, how to show your own real enthusiasm and share the fact that your product is beneficial in that case.