My Starbucks Obsession

I don't feel loyalty to too many corporations. I like driving my 2004 Lexus sedan with 164,000 miles on it.

Food is important. I buy healthy food at the Whole Foods Market. As far as beer and tortilla chips-- no preference really.

As far as fashion, I find most of the great brands get the job done-- Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger make quality clothes. I came across a French company that makes shirts-- Marithe and Francois Girbaud-- by finding fantastic used shirts at Thrift Shops. Just went to the girbaud.com website and see the new clothes cost 200 Euros and more!

I've had good luck with Rockport shoes. I worked as a waiter for many years and the Rockports provided good foot support. Never buy second hand shoes!

And, like almost everybody else, I'm a fan of Apple products. I'm typing on a MacBook laptop. My phone is a Samsung.

Guess I have more brand loyalty than I realized. Nobody  really functions in this world without turning to corporations for survival-- food, clothes and entertainment. That's the West anyway.

We have everything at our fingertips. Just admit it. Life is good even with Trump in office.

But Starbucks stands out for me-- my coffee shop of choice, even with all the excellent cafes in my neighborhood.

The reasons I like Starbucks:

1) Good coffee
2) Made precisely so almost always perfect on the espresso drinks
3) Comfortable setting-- high ceilings and naturally well-lit with big windows always part of the architecture.
4) Starbucks Gold Card. My adding cash to my gold card I somehow don't notice the cost of my coffee drinks. It's a poor man's Gold Card but you do earn some free coffee drinks along the way.
5) Like the mermaid logo-- not sure why this adds to the experience?
6) Like the lingo-- tall, grande, vente for small, medium and large drinks.
7) Rest, read, restore, recuperate-- Starbucks is a corporation that will provide you a comfortable place to sit and read or to converse with a friend.

The key to my Starbucks loyalty has to be #7--

Despite their large volume of business, Starbucks customers move in-and-out, and room exists for people to sit down, read the newspaper, study the contents of their cellphone, or share conversation and conviviality with a friend.

The Super Bowl ads will use all manner of cleverness to attract me to their product.  Maybe Starbucks will have an ad? I hear they cost $7 million dollars for a 30 second spot.

Sure I'm set in my ways. And Starbucks is at the top of my list.