we know the world's gone mad

I am not obsessed with Starbucks, I swear. I go there everyday after my swim and have a cup of drip (the cheapest drink) and crave things I do not eat. It is just about the only retail establishment I frequent so Starbucks is my filter on what's up in the economy as filtered by corporate marketing.

I don't go to Starbucks for the coffee. I go for the purple, plush armchair positioned perfectly in the sun. I have tried other coffee shops here in Mountain View but none of them provide armchairs.

I am writing the bulk of my novel in the Mountain View Starbucks. If Starbucks would like some product placement in my novel, however, it will cost them. Perhaps they would like to give me a pass for one free drink every day for the rest of my life? Then I could give Starbucks a little ink in my book. I could have Willa, well, go to Starbucks every day after her swim.

Starbucks is a great metaphor for what's gone wrong here in America. I remember when they used to sell just coffee. I remember when getting a shot of espresso was unfamiliar. Gradually, they brought in carbohydrates to go with the coffee. Gradually, they began to make all those big, sweet drinks. Now they sell all kinds of stuff and the retail display space in each store grows larger and larger, displacing things like my purple plush chair.

I just read that Starbucks is going to open thousands of new stores all around the world, within the next couple years. What drives such rapaciousness? I can't quantify it but I have a hunch that all that has gone wrong is represented by Starbucks expansion all around the globe.

Even as I am vaguely repulsed by their corporate hunger, I still want to go there every day. What has gone wrong with me?!

My Starbucks, probably all of them, is now selling little teddy bears dressed up for formal holiday parties. Each day as I walk past them, I want to buy a male and a female teddy bear, just to have the fun of picking them up, dancing over to the register, chatting with the guest services agent (they used to call these folks sales clerks: what do they call them now?). Do they giftwrap?

When my strong urges to buy these teddy bears overtake me, I know I am doing something wrong with my days.