<p>I have never patronized a Starbucks.</p>
<p>Hubby and I grind our own beans (100% Columbian or French Roast) and perk/split a 12-cup pot each morning. If we are on the road or feel the need to purchase from a retailer, we will hit a Dunkins.</p>
<p>I avoid Starbucks, always have. I just don’t like their coffee. And have never found anything good to eat there! Much prefer Peet’s and Small World, but they are harder to fine.</p>
<p>Actually, I really love the coffee at McDonald’s lately. I drink it black and I think it’s just great. And absurdly cheap! </p>
<p>My latest mid-afternoon treat: small McDonald’s black coffee and a small vanilla ice cream cone. By the time I finish the ice cream, the coffee is cool enough to drink. Get’s my motor running.</p>
<p>I go to Starbucks usually twice a day. Not just in my local area, but all over the nation, because I travel constantly. It is one of the few places where the coffee is consistently good (at least it tastes great to me), and the service is consistently excellent.</p>
<p>I don’t think your experience is typical at all. In fact, out of the hundreds (thousands?) of times I’ve been to Starbucks, I can only recall one time where someone was rude. A similar experience to yours, ignoring me for a long time while talking, then singing the order in an unbelievably obnoxious way. It was at the Memphis Airport. I lived for five years in Memphis, and it was not unusual for me as a white person, to be treated that way by a black person in the service profession. It was always a treat to me when someone was friendly. I have had people turn their backs on me when I walked up to them at a fast food place, be sullen, ignore me and be outright rude and unnecessarily confrontational. I have only had that happen to me in Memphis. Race relations are not so good there.</p>
<p>With my Starbucks experience, I remember doing something about it. I believe there was an online customer complaint area (or maybe there was a card in the store) that I was able to write about my experience. I would not let that go. The company needs to know about that, it is unacceptable.</p>
<p>Not a big fan of the over-roasted burned Starbucks style, but gotta give them credit: their new lighter blonde roast coffees are really, really good. I’ve got four pounds of Veranda blend beans sitting next to the two pounds of Dunkin Donuts beans in my kitchen right now. If you don’t like Starbucks, order the Blonde Roast.</p>
<p>I’ve been alternating between the two. There aren’t very many Starbucks in NH. I’ve been stopping at one up north on the way to hiking trails and catching a Dunkin Donuts to fuel the drive home.</p>
<p>I don’t eat anything at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. Neither one of them sells food that is going to do anything good to me.</p>
<p>We only have one Starbucks in my town and it’s in the grocery store. Thankfully we have three DD’s and a lovely locally owned coffee shop since I am not a fan of SB. Imo, their coffee has a very bitter taste.</p>
<p>Our DD’s put whatever you want in the coffee for you. No DIY.</p>
<p>DD + SBUX = lots of carbs</p>
<p>At Starbucks, they always ask me if I want something to eat because I’m looking at their food trying to find the low-carb option.</p>
<p>They sell muffins, scones, chibata, and yogurt/fruit parfait etc. Why would you expect a low carb option?</p>
<p>I look for low-carb options wherever I go, even if I’m not hungry - just so I know where to go if I am hungry.</p>
<p>Panera Bread does have a low-carb option for breakfast in the form of their egg souffle.</p>
<p>But Panera is a restaurant - not a fault of Starbucks just a different mission. I don’t think selling eggs is their mission :)</p>
<p>DD sells eggs. Hard to get them without bread of some form though.</p>
<p>Starbucks sells an egg, sausage English muffin thing but it’s all melted together yummily, tough to unpack the eggs to eat alone.</p>
<p>Starbucks has salads. I think a chef type salad, and also a fruit & cheese plate.
[Explore</a> our Menu | Starbucks Coffee Company](<a href=“Starbucks®”>Starbucks®)
I used to get them a bit as when I was working on the wildlife bridges we would meet at Starbucks to discuss the plans for the day. They always were very accommodating, and didn’t mind our whole team monopolizing the restrooms twice a day.</p>
<p>I think Starbucks espresso is often bitter, but not always. H usually gets drip & I get zen tea.
I usually dont like flavored coffee, that is like getting flavored beer. Sometimes in the winter I will get an eggnog or hazelnut latte though, and when I was pregnant I would drink hazelnut steamed milk as consolation for not being able to drink coffee.
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<p>Wanted to, but trip was abruptly cut short by inquiries from a US Attorney. The CEO who arranged the trip did so to further a scam, but some investors started asking pointed questions. He went from sociopath to psychopath in an instant. </p>
<p>I changed flights so I didn’t have to fly back with him. Those that did not change flights regretted it. He eventually plead guilty to a four and a half million dollar fraud and served 24 months. </p>
<p>How many poor idiots are now serving 10 or 20 years for robbing a store for $100 or less?</p>
<p>Next time someone says this is the “greatest country in the world”, tell them to think harder.</p>
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<p>I “carb-load” with breakfast to go on the way to hiking with a McDonald’s bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. It’s the closest thing to a healthy take-out breakfast that is available in Tilton, NH! I no longer do the hash browns or orange juice, though…</p>
<p>Those Starbucks breakfast sandwiches are seriously delicious. But plenty of carbs, no doubt. And for those who don’t like the burned beans, Pike Place Roast is very smooth.</p>
<p>I like Duncan Donuts coffee a lot, but…something really concerned me. The last time I went, they put in the cream, as they always do…lots of it, which is probably why it tastes so good. I asked the cashier, what exactly kind of cream is that? Is it half and half, real cream? She looked at the container, and said it was “light cream” with no ingredients listed. I fear it is merely liquid creamer, which is, of course, mostly partially hydrogenized soybean oil-gross! So until I know for sure, I won’t drink their coffee.</p>
<p>interesteddad - You should check out the nutritional information at McDonald’s. The old standby egg mcmuffin is quite a bit healthier than their biscuit sandwiches. The egg mcmuffin does have fewer carbs but more protein, almost half the fat and about 30% less sodium.</p>
<p>Good choice not getting the breakfast fries, I mean, hash browns. :)</p>
<p>busdriver – this was the first time someone at Starbucks was downright rude, almost hostile. Usually they’re indifferent and you have to repeat your order 2-3 times; they never smile. If I’m not in a rush, I’ll say “how are you doing?” and I get, unsmiling, sullen, “canitakeyourorder?” Some people will act like they work at McDonalds even if they don’t. And the job is put upon them, and they are lifers, and they don’t want to be there. The tale of the oppressed.</p>
<p>I have to buy ground coffee today. I’m going to vote with my dollars and see what other options are out there.</p>
<p>Classof2015, does your area have low unemployment? I can’t even think of a coffee shop where I have gotten rude or indifferent service, although sometimes they seem awfully perky for Seattle. 
I do notice a lot of new employees lately though, at places I don’t regularly frequent. Don’t know if that means the economy is picking up or if that they just cycle through workers faster than average.</p>
<p>It’s everywhere.
[NOAA-funded</a> researchers find caffeine in Pacific Northwest coastal waters](<a href=“http://researchmatters.noaa.gov/news/Pages/caffeine.aspx]NOAA-funded”>http://researchmatters.noaa.gov/news/Pages/caffeine.aspx)</p>
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<p>Too bad - I think that employees with passion can be quite interesting.</p>
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<p>Sometimes the only options in small towns is the truck stop near the highway with refrigerated sandwiches and a microwave.</p>
<p>We don’t eat pork so a lot of those breakfast sandwiches are off the table. McDonalds will cook you up just eggs though.</p>
<p>I’m too frugal (translation:cheap) to frequent SB but occasionally stop into DD for a plain old coffee with skim milk. Boring I know.</p>
<p>For customer service, I LIVE Trader Joe’s. the people working there actually seem to be happy to be there.</p>