I never used to like Starbucks all that much. I came across it in Seattle in 1994 then again in Westport in 1995, and I never thought that much of it.
I never missed not having it in Sweden. Moving to Bangkok I thought it was good to have Starbucks nearby, but I never went. For 21 months I think I had Starbucks two or three times.
Now after 22 months in The Big Mango, I am nearly obsessed. I can hardly go by a Starbucks “café” without stopping and check if they have any available sofas. Because the sofas are, to me, crucial. No Sofa – No Coffee.
And it puzzles me why there usually aren’t more than two or maybe three comfortable sofas in the Starbucks “Cafés” in Bangkok.
Except the one on Soi 49, which therefore obviously has become my favourite.
But, I don’t like to think of Starbucks as Cafés. It is a coffee shop. Cafés are genuine and Americans usually don’t know how to design and build cafés. A café beats Starbucks any day of the week and twice on a Tuesday. But I am still obsessed by Starbucks at the moment, and I give the American’s (yes, all of them) cred for creating such a good environment.