To wonder what's so great about Starbucks?

[ACatCalledColin]

Every time I go in there, it's always overcrowded and there's nowhere to sit or if it's not crowded the tables are usually still filthy from previous customers and nobody's bothering to clear them up .

The coffee is okay but certainly not anything to write home about. I quite like their hot chocolate (especially with some caramel syrup) and frappes though. Unfortunately I always seem to get dragged in there by friends on shopping trips as they all seem to love it.

Even my 14 year old sister has started going there with friends after school and at weekends and they usually go for the coffee rather than the frappes. And she raves about Starbucks a lot these days too.

Do they hypnotize you into coming back for more of their dirty dishwater coffee? Are they trying to take over the world?

I won't set foot in one, I hate their coffee.

I love Starbucks, I love the mocha frapp with my whole being. But I boycott, because fuck paying four quid for a coffee when the robbing bastards don't pay their taxes.

I love Starbucks,love that a swathe of people hate it.good.keep em out
More room for me and the weans

their coffee only tastes nice in the takeaway cups. Tastes shit out of those nasty big Starbucks mugs.

Minty my first visit was in Seattle in 1998.

I loathe them now as everything is far too milky and their flat white isn't as good as Costa's.

The maw,starbuck are acting legally re:the taxation.its convoluted avoidance,not nonpayment
Do you boycott Arcadia group,topshop,Dorothy Perkins due Phil green tax avoidance?

It's interesting that people are saying it's obscene to pay so much for a cup of coffee. I don't drink alcohol or smoke so I suppose my coffee habit is equivalent to other people who like a glass (or three) of wine or 20 cigarettes a day. I'm not saying any of these are wrong, btw, just what people class as expensive, I suppose.

God, my kids have been off school almost a week now. I would kill for a couple of hours in a coffee shop, sans children, with a good book, a vanilla latte and a bar of chocolate...

Starbucks is gross. That's all I have to say.

I have a Gaggia Classic and tbh very few coffee shops make anything as good( the exception being 1 indie shop near us).I worked out how much I've saved over the years and it's hundreds of pounds.

Is it worth it then Retro? I'd love one.

Starbucks tea is the best in any cafe I've tried in our town, and the staff have always been polite, helpful without me having to ask (moving tables for buggies/groups, carrying trays etc) and they make a big fuss of DD. And there is no finer snack than toasted tea bread slathered in melts butter

But I go to Caffe Nero for actual coffee. They do all of the above too, plus if they've frothed too much milk for the babychino thingy, they give her the rest in a big cup.

ScottishMummy yup. And I know it's avoidance, and legal, but thanks for keeping me right.

I'm not interested in keeping you right,I queried if you're consistent

Ooooo retro, I've got a gaggia classic too and I lurves it, especially as we get beans from hasbean and grind them fresh every morning. Sometimes twice

I order a wet latte with an extra shot, extra hot. Get me. for my townie ways

2yo DS loves their fruit toast - so much so that he calls it fruit toast shop and says "bye bye fruit toast" when we leave. Can't go to town now without stopping there (well we could but that would invoke the mother of all tantrums and since I have a weakness for gingerbread latte I'm happy to keep the peace on that one !)

scottishmummy wasn't Boots and Amazon also on the list of tax avoiders? (Or did I imagine that one?)

I'm not paying extortionate prices for tea/coffee - I'm paying for somewhere comfortable, warm, friendly to spend some time off my feet, where I can get a good cuppa and treat my DD. Not bad for £2 (tea).

And it's not weak in my branch! They always ask if you want one tea bag or two.

I haven't dared buy coffee in Costa since the thread about someone pooing themselves there. A LOT of posters referred to the Costa trots....

Sauce yes.

£194 on Amazon,just realised I bought mine in 1998. I buy one bag of Lavazza a week at £3( if I was loaded it would be Illy but that is £5). Pre Gaggia dp and I bought a coffee each a day out.

Think we've covered the £200 outlay.

They're built like a tank.Mine has survived countless moves.

No sorry 2006,but that is still 8 years of savings.

I'm not mad on sitting in Starbucks but I find it hard to leave any shopping trip without a skinny latte - extra hot, just ask, they do it no questions, to take on my drive home. It's my main indulgence.

Starbucks is somewhere to be, that's exactly it. It's the ideal venue to meet a friend for a chat or to take one of the dc for a special treat so we can chat one to one over hot chocolates.

Starbucks is my least favourite hot choc though, is always served lukewarm and tastes of nothing but milk. Costa's is lovely and rich and chocolatey.

But Starbucks is most convenient to get to

Thank you retro - I think they look great.

Of all the chain coffee shops it is the worst.

When I read threads like this I realise how different London is to the rest of the country. Sorry if anyone finds that offensive

I doubt my dh's parents (live in rural Suffolk) even know what Starbucks is. But flat whites, babycinos, soya milk, all that shizzle, extra hot, double shot = completely normal in this blessed capital of ours. Never mind we have to pay double at least for housing just for the privilege of living here.