Disgusting Lines

Today I had the fortunate circumstance of needing to take my truck in for service to Toyota. I tend to give repeat business to automotive places if they have had a good track record with me. Thus far I have had no issue with Michael's Toyota of Bellevue-- and today my oil change was free because I had hit the next punch in my oil change punch card... good times!

So I went into the corporate IT building here for my job only to discover that the usual set of cubes I would set up shop in are now occupied by people.

3,4 (and here is where I start counting randomly.. but I will tell you why in a moment.. 5,6,7..)

8..

So anyway-- I decided that I didn't want to squat in a tiny cellphone privacy room (which is in bad taste in my company) so I decided to come across the street to the shopping center which has two.. yes two.. Starbucks.

The crazy thing, is that one Starbucks in particular is incredibly busy (the one I'm sitting outside of using free HotSpot). So busy, in fact, that people will come anywhere from 10 feet to opening the door only to discover the incredibly long line: the line is to the door.

9.

So I started to count the number of people exclaiming about the line and promptly turning around to go elsewhere. I don't entirely know if they were aware of the 2nd Starbucks, which I can turn around and see from my seat (taking cell phone pictures now, which I will have to post later).

10,11.

It does, in some way, make sense that people go to this Starbucks instead of the *other* one in this strip mall. It is right in the foot traffic of employees travelling to and from the corporate HQ, as well as across the street from one of our IT buildings-- and you know how crazy IT people are for their caffeine fix.

Majority of the people I see walk into the Starbucks DO have badges of some sort, again most of them are from T-Mobile. There are a ton of other corporate IT and technology firms around here and up the road from here and this is the only Starbucks that is 'on the way' or 'easily accessible' to people.

Those that were disgusted by the long lines at Starbucks either:

a) Appeared to be in an extreme hurry.

b) Appeared to just not like long lines.

c) Was in such a dire need for coffee, a break, or some snack that they wanted to just go chill somewhere in a less busy environment.

You might be surprised to find how easily it comes to fitting those who reject the lines into one of the above three categories. The body language, verbal cues, and general demeanor of a person describes how dissatisfied they are with the situation and gives you a pretty deep insight as to 'why'.

Let's start with the later two:

b) is the type of person who hates waiting in *any* line for *anything* and probably speeds past the single car on the highway just because the poor bastard (driving +5 over the limite) had the unfornuate circumstance of being on the road in front of the jerkoff. When said jerkoff gets on his ass in the first place and expects the now enemy-driver to "get the F out of his/her way", it only aggravates them more that they have to be bothered with changing lanes to further break the law and speed by his new target of lament. Zero patience, zero tolerance, and all around douche-baggery are the phrases that best describe them. They aren't necessarily in a hurry.. but they hate having anyone and anything in their way.

c) Hey.. I can't blame you. You want a break from work. You want a tasty beverage. You want to not deal w/the hustle and bustle of a crowded Starbucks. Perhaps you really didn't have any idea and were passing through. Fair enough. Or perhaps you are a complete fucking idiot for choosing a Starbucks in which you knew had a 99% chance of being incredibly busy and you wasted your time, your buddies' time (if they came with you), and possibly some gas in the process. You also are the ignoramus who *probably* doesn't realize there is another Starbucks in the same complex that you could walk your lazy ass to-- but I know you are too fucking lazy to be bothered by using your eyes, which are now plagued by contrast sensitivity and fatigue since you drink entirely too much espresso anyway. Your legs probably can't handle the work out. Go find a Tully's.

which brings me back to the entire reason why I'm writing this article:

a) You sons of bitches. You have fucking ruined Starbucks. You are the market-trend demise of a corporation that was inspired by the great coffee/espresso cultures ever present in Europe. The commoditization (is a word?) of "coffee" (which half of you out there don't drink coffee.. you drink espresso), and the reason why Starbucks usually fucks up my drink, occurs because your impatient, "hurry up and wait" habits develop completely unfounded and unrealistic expectations which are placed upon the business and ultimately the employees.

a) is precisely the reason why McDonald's is now making 'espresso & coffee' drinks. I have said for a few years now that "Starbucks is the McDonald's of coffee" and look what became of that. You choose to go to a business that makes espresso drinks-- which takes time when you have 10 people in line-- and expect that they are able to service you in less than 2-3 minutes? Get fucked! You might enjoy your half-assed drinks.. and a lot of people have left them to you (hence Sbux being in financial downturn, closing stores, and re-thinking their marketing and business model).

12.

What kills me-- is a) not only shows up to a busy Starbucks already either late, in a hurry for no god damned reason, or in a bad mood and just in a hurry because they don't want to fucking deal with anyone or anything in life-- but they have the gumption to scoff, make derogatory comments about the line (or people in line), and/or make negative comments about the establishment and Starbucks as a whole!!! Where the hell do you get your sense of entitlement? Where did you get the impatience? Is it so fucking terrible a business is in such demand they have a line? Fucking go to another Starbucks, or don't bother scoffing about it, or better yet, just chill the fuck out.

13... at least she didn't look like she was in a hurry.. and she's walking over to the other Starbucks.

14,15.

Past Due

Last night on the news, and today on a local news website, I saw a segment about "past due" foods, and what is/not safe to eat past the due date printed on certain foods.

My girlfriend grew up on a farm. Her parents own a chain of organic food stores on the east coast. She had a ton of knowledge on the 'behavior' of the shelf life of food she brought with her, and boy have I learned a lot from her!

The phrase I learned to get away from saying, let alone thinking about, was "go bad". As in, "well we need to eat (food item) or else it will go bad."

A common misconception about the shelf life of foods, especially dairy and 'whole' products (whole, as in little or no preservatives), is that the 'best by' or 'due' date printed on most foods is a hard date that designates spoilage.

The best example I can come up with is when you are buying milk at ANY grocery store. Whether you buy organic milk or not, there is a printed date on the milk carton or jug. Have you ever been shopping for milk and noticed a lot of a particular date that is in the near future? Have you then proceeded to find the milk with the date furthest out? Chances are you have, and depending on the type of milk you buy you probably need not worry about the date coming up on the milk so soon.

If you have a recently purchased carton of milk that has been recently opened (say, 1 week or so), and the 'due' date came up, give the milk a sniff-- it should smell fine. If it does, then taste it-- I'm sure it tastes fine. That's because it IS fine... there is nothing wrong with it!!

If that doesn't make any sense, then I will spell it out: The dates printed on MOST foods are guidelines for when best to use the food by. It doesn't mean that on or the day after that date the food has 'gone bad'.. it just means you must use discretion in deciding whether or not the food is up to your quality for consuming.

No longer do I simply throw out a can of yogurt barely past the date printed on the can. No longer is milk instantly 'bad', even 2 days after the date on the jug. I don't find myself getting rid of eggs, even 2-3 weeks past the date printed on the egg carton. I won't even get into the shelf-stable stuff. ;)

Anywho-- It's no surprise to me to see this pop up in a few articles while the economy is bad. We, as Americans, waste SO much food. Ask anyone that rotates dairy at a grocery store and I'm sure they will tell you about the gobs of product they pull from shelves every few weeks.

The moral to this post is: If you are a consumer whore, you definitely look at ways to be fiscally responsible with the money you spend on consumables.

Dates printed on foods aren't hard and fast.
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I can't find the link to the darned article.. that's what I get for being a lazy bum!