Largely Unfulfilled Desires

If you're not expanding your belly, than the next best thing to expand is your mind.

That's why I thought it might be good to change it up a bit and provide some content that will hopefully expand your mind. A new book entitled, Everything but the Coffee by Bryant Simon just came out and it details his observations of Starbucks and their customers after having spent countless hours sitting and people watching.

John Moore, (blogger and author of Tribal Knowledge) has provided some additional commentary from Bryant Simon about his observations of Starbucks on his blog.

Below is a particular excerpt from Bryant Simon about Starbucks and the promises they make to their customers. So often we visit Starbucks determined to feel something special, something amazing....does it ever happen? Does Starbucks fulfill us? Or are we just being completely misled...

"BRYANT SIMON: Many branders, following the lead of Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, argue that higher-end consumers are looking for experiences and wiling to pay extra to get them. I think about this idea in a slightly different way. I think we pay a premium to get the things that are missing in our lives – experience being just one of them (and I write about this in the chapter in my book on music and the feeling of discovery, both real and vicarious that Starbucks sells.) Back to my point, so I think that people increasingly buy to fulfill their desires or get a hold of the things that are missing in their lives.

But there is another dynamic at work here.

As other social forces – neighborhoods, community, unions, and politics – seem to recede, brands have stepped into our lives to offer more of the things that matter most to us – everything from authenticity to work spaces to belonging to social justice. Really, then brands sell promises – promises to fulfill our needs and desires. Yet, often they deliver only an illusion of what we need and want, some vapory facsimile that looks like the real thing, but usually isn’t even close.

Few companies, in what we might call the “promise economy,” sell more -- e.g. promise more – than Starbucks. But again, the company doesn’t always deliver on its promises.

Take the promise of Third Place. Starbucks has borrowed – expropriated -- this phrase from the sociologist Ray Oldenburg. Oldenburg calls these locations real – not virtual -- sites between work and home where people can gather. Starbucks serves this role, but back to the question, in only the thinnest, most ephemeral of ways.

To Oldenburg, third places are social setting where strangers meet and forge the bonds of community. Once they trust each other, they go on to discuss matters of crucial import to the community. Talk is essential for these places to genuinely work. But that isn’t really what happens at Starbucks. People come to Starbucks to get a moment of respite or to meet with colleagues, but rarely do they engage in the kinds of community discussions needed to bolster civic life. So what they get at Starbucks, is a busy, chatty looking place that looks like a third place, but isn’t really a third place. Kind of like those cup quotes.

Remember when Starbucks tattooed its cups with quotes? They were there the company said to encourage conversation and community, but they didn’t say much that could get anyone to actually talk or engage with others. Who isn’t in favor of finding love, the rainbow of colors, and the innocence of kids playing baseball? When the cups did incite a little controversy, Starbucks pulled the offending cups. That’s not free speech, and free speech is key to Third Places and to community. Just ask Ray Oldenburg.

Same with the environment. Starbucks knows that a growing core of its customer base cares deeply about green issues, so it promises to do its part (and allow them to think they have done their part). On every Starbucks cup, it reads right under the quotes, “Help us, help the planet.”

Sure, Starbucks has done some great stuff to limit its carbon footprint and utilize solar energy sources, but it doesn’t really help the environment, it actually leaves it in worse shape after each latte purchase. By not pushing in-store ceramic cups or reusable tumblers, Starbucks encourages takeaway, throwaway consumption. Every time we walk out the door with a paper cup, java jacket, and plastic lid (and perhaps a green plastic splash stick), we are – and so is Starbucks – creating trash (and all of the energy and oil needed top produce these additional cups and lids and then cart them off to the landfill where the take up place and slowly rot, but not be they get covered up by another bag of coffee house rubbish.)

These are two examples of promises that Starbucks makes – because the ideas they promise have value to their customers and add value to their products – but doesn’t entirely fulfill. And this is one of the avenues of inquiry I explore in my book. I look hard at what Starbucks sells and what it actually delivers."

(Used with permission from John Moore)

Dreaming of Friendly's

The year was 2002 and I had never heard of Friendly's before.

This particular hot summer I was in Stamford, Connecticut for a few days on business. It was around lunch time and we were looking for a place to eat.

Driving through Stamford, nothing seemed good until we drove past a Friendly's. Not knowing what the heck a Friendly's even was, I asked the people in our car...they called me a fool for not ever going to Friendly's and then explained that they have some of the best ice cream on earth.

Since we were all salivating from talking about Friendly's we decided to pull in and grab lunch there.....little did I know this lunch would forever change my entire life.

After reading over the menu I chose the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sundae. (You're reading that correctly...I had a sundae for lunch with no other food).

Never has peanut butter, ice cream and hot fudge been so flippin satisfying. In that moment, my taste buds were forever changed - the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sundae was my new food idol.

Upon returning back home to the Tampa area after my trip I searched far and wide to find my nearest Friendly's. Much to my dismay the nearest location was 90 minutes away in Orlando.

About two months after I got back I couldn't resist it any longer so I convinced my brother to drive with me to Orlando to go eat at Friendly's. (Yes, I drove an hour and a half for an ice cream sundae).

This wouldn't be my last journey to Orlando just to eat Friendly's. Later in the year I was dating this girl (not my future wife) who I talked to on a regular basis about Friendly's....probably to the point that it drove her insane. One weekend she blind folded me, told me to get in her car and an hour and a half later I was in the Friendly's parking lot in Orlando.

To most of you, this probably sounds completely ridiculous. However, if you have ever tasted a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sundae from Friendly's you might feel differently. To this very day, I still love Friendly's and I wish there was one closer to me...unfortunately my nearest location is still 90 minutes away.

Since I can't have Friendly's I figured the next best thing would be to share it with all of you. In celebration of Friendly's and their amazing ice cream, I'm giving away one $10 Gift Card to Friendly's to the first person who comments on this post and writes about their favorite Friendly's sundae. After you comment, please send me an email so I can get your contact info to mail you the gift card (danielrholm@gmail.com).

A Love Letter to Cinnabon

Dear Cinnabon:

I can smell your goodness from a mile away....it's like being wrapped in a warm winter blanket on an icy cold day. If heaven had a smell...I know it would smell like you.

Just the look of you from a distance makes my eyes water with joy.

As I slowly approach you in your warm glowing case I can't help but admit my heart skips a beat. Then you slowly pull yourself away from the crowd of your friends and come running in to my arms.

Your delicate, sweet and heart warming icing slowly rolls off of you. As I take my first bite.....your gooey bits roll down my chin.

The warm taste of your sweet cinnamon flavor is almost more than I can stand. I crave you every time I come within 100 yards of glorious shop and I can barely resist the temptation of your calling.

My favorite part of you is the left over cinnamon sugar goo that is on the bottom of the container. It's an enormous glob of everything amazing about you and when I scoop it up with my spoon and taste it my heart is sent into complete oblivion.

I can't get enough of you...in every mall and airport you're at....I'll be there...I can't resist you. Please, don't tell my wife I am cheating on her with a giant cinnamon roll...you are my secret guilty pleasure.

I love you,

Dan