I am an unapologetic Starbucks fan. The chain does what it does exceedingly well. What I don't like is the way that every other drinks vendor on the planet now has to attempt its own feeble imitation.
Sometime I'd quite like the efficiency of having a preprepared pot of coffee speedily poured into a standard-size cup then simply adding my own milk.
Certainly when my train is a minute away at my local station, the tedium of waiting for five people's coffee to be individually prepared offsets any small improvement in the quality of the drink. And I don't like having to consider five different variables at 8am.
Some research conducted by a fried of mine concluded that one of the main reasons people bought organic foodstuffs was simply that it reduced choice. There were perhaps seven kinds of inorganic banana but only one organic one - hence the one decision to become an organic shopper may remove fifty other decisions from a single shop. Vegetarianism and religious food prohibitions may appeal to their adherents for similar reasons.
I now learn that a former colleague of mine has invested in an online venture to replicate this effect: www.20ltd.com
