{"id":1848,"date":"2008-01-10T07:58:47","date_gmt":"2008-01-10T12:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/coffee-break\/"},"modified":"2008-01-10T07:58:47","modified_gmt":"2008-01-10T12:58:47","slug":"coffee-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/coffee-break","title":{"rendered":"Coffee break"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were two significant (and probably related) coffee announcements this week: McDonald’s plans to add coffee bars to its stores<\/a>, and Starbucks founder and chairman Howard Schultz has taken back his CEO role<\/a>. I don’t have a horse in this race, since I prefer Dunkin Donuts’ coffee (unless there’s a Tim Hortons<\/a> around, of course), wouldn’t set foot in a McDonald’s for anything except a fry-fix, and can’t stand Starbucks’ actual coffee (y’know, the black stuff).<\/p>\n

I’ve read a lot of commentary on these moves — check out Megan McCardle’s<\/a> and Bill Conerly’s<\/a> — but I think the most salient insights come from this conversation between Roast Beef and Ray<\/a>:<\/p>\n

ME: Tell me what you like most about Starbucks I mean I know you get coffee there.<\/p>\n

RAY: The chicks who work there, dude! All tight black pants, smilin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, hell of took a shower lately . . .<\/p>\n

ME: Now tell me what you remember about the McDonald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worker chicks.<\/p>\n

RAY: They . . . they get these weird little purple blotches on their faces, but they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to come to a head. And . . . and they got those flappy bellies that the company makes them tuck into their pants. Bellies that could hang into a sink, but not stick out above a sink. Wait, hold on a minute, man–<\/p>\n

ME: Plus think about it Ray if they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even repeat NUMBER THREE, DIET COKE how they gonna do with a double venti short tall nonfat mocha no foam cappuccino with two ice cubes and a half shot of sugarfree vanilla for Mackenzie who by the way is a skinny woman in Versace sunglasses and not a fat Irish man in an Aran cable sweater holding a Guinness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now go read some Achewood<\/a>. I’m gonna get me some DD and finish up that Jan\/Feb ish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were two significant (and probably related) coffee announcements this week: McDonald’s plans to add coffee bars to its stores, and Starbucks founder and chairman Howard Schultz has taken back his CEO role. I don’t have a horse in this race, since I prefer Dunkin Donuts’ coffee (unless there’s a Tim Hortons around, of course), … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Coffee break”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-tO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":942,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/raze-the-roof","url_meta":{"origin":1848,"position":0},"title":"Raze the roof","author":"Gil","date":"May 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I wrote a little about brand awareness among architects (and, by extension, other artists). Today, I offer you an article from BusinessWeek on remaking the McDonald's brand: The traditional McDonald's yellow and red colors will remain, but the red will be muted to terra cotta and olive and sage\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1613,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/starcents","url_meta":{"origin":1848,"position":1},"title":"Starcents","author":"Gil","date":"August 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I think this article should've had the headline, \"How much more will you morons pay for substandard coffee?\" (not that I'm willing to try that McDonald's coffee; I'll stick with DD until Tim Horton reaches NJ)","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1912,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/beans-and-time","url_meta":{"origin":1848,"position":2},"title":"Beans and Time","author":"Gil","date":"February 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's another article on how Starbucks can or cannot reinvent itself, which came out a day before yesterday's announcement of 600 layoffs. Consultant Geoff Vuleta has gone silent on the company's initiative to spay its baristas, but he does offer up a smart idea: go small. Open a chain of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2003,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-41408","url_meta":{"origin":1848,"position":3},"title":"What it is: 4\/14\/08","author":"Gil","date":"April 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Locas, by Jaime Hernandez. Just feeling sentimental for Maggie & Hopey, I guess. What I'm listening to: She and Him, Vol. 1, but not getting into it. What I'm watching: A marathon of The Deadliest Catch, in preparation for the premier of the new season. What I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=156097611X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1919,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/naked-coffee-break","url_meta":{"origin":1848,"position":4},"title":"Naked Coffee-Break","author":"Gil","date":"February 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"According to this NYPost story, all U.S. Starbucks stores are closing for 3 hours today for \"espresso excellence training\". The reactions -- \"What am I supposed to do, make it myself?\" fumed NYU student Mallory Drew, 18, at the always-packed Lafayette Street and Astor Place location. \"I am shocked. Shocked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Urban issues"","block_context":{"text":"Urban issues","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/urban-issues"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1580,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/coffeetime","url_meta":{"origin":1848,"position":5},"title":"Coffeetime!","author":"Gil","date":"July 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I try not to bore you by writing about details from my workplace. There are plenty other subjects I can write about to bore you. That said, the Top Companies issue is all wrapped up, dear readers! I can get some rest! Or get back to writing these posts (Montaigne:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}