I'm sitting at Starbucks in Chapters drinking an overpriced (albeit delicious) cappuccino. As I sit here and observe I see a few different categories of clientele. There is the hurried soccer mom-type who rushes in, orders her "venti non-fat sugar free soya vanilla latte extra hot with an extra shot of espresso" (probably needs the extra shot to maintain that level of energy) without hesitation and then stands there obviously impatient as she waits. Then there is the naive elderly customer who is unsuspectingly bombarded with questions for details on the "coffee" he orders: "will that be grande or tall? Bold? Do you need room?" The elderly customer immediately feels stupid and frustrated "I just want a regular coffee". Also we have the normal person who sort of knows the drill and has been rehearsing her order for the entire length of the line. When she finally reaches the till she takes a deep breath, "this is it" she thinks to herself and then haltingly orders "um I'll have a....non.fat.no whip.chai.latte". "what size?" asks the barista. The customer silently berates herself for forgetting her line and shakily mutters "venti". Finally we have the rest of us who are reasonably versed in Starbucks culture and who always have a shred of guilt (but not too much) about spending $3.50 on a caffeinated treat when we know that "for the cost if one coffee a day you can save this starving child in Africa".
No comments:
Post a Comment