Quote:
Originally Posted by EE-BO
Not sure about now, but at one point McDonald's owned Chipotle. I used to like eating there until I looked up the nutritional data online. Even the rice itself is loaded with fat from whatever they put on it to give it that appealing taste. Sadly enough, healthy as it seems, in some ways Chipotle is just as bad as fast food.
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McDonald's used to own Chipotle, as well as Boston Market.
Now, regarding Starbucks. In college I worked at two different Starbucks locations - in Bellevue, WA and Malibu, CA. That was before they went crazy with the Frappucinos and music, and still sold beans (NOT pre-packaged) in the stores. We had three frappucino options - coffee, mocha and espresso - and that was plenty. I'd like to see Starbucks do away with the sweet drinks they sell for non-coffee drinkers. If you don't like coffee or tea, you shouldn't go to Starbucks. They can go back to selling steamers, hot chocolate and OJ/apple juice for the kids, but that's it. And in my opinion they should go back to bagging beans in the stores; it was my favorite part of the job, and it kept customers engaged in Starbucks' coffee.
When Howard stepped down from heading the company, things went downhill. They tried to sell everything to everyone. Now he's back, and he's going back to what he founded the company on: coffee and community. They expanded too fast; those of you in the mid-west, south, east, etc. can't even fathom how many Starbucks stores we have in Washington, particularly the Seattle area. PLUS we have another big chain - Tully's - in addition to smaller local chains such as Caffe Ladro, Seattle's Best Coffee (now owned by Starbucks), Uptown Espresso. And then we have all the gas stations and corners with their own espresso huts outside. Starbucks isn't the most expensive of our options, but I'd rather buy a latte from Caffe Ladro because their espresso just tastes better to me, and when I walk into one of its stores I don't feel like I'm in a Jamba Juice or ice cream shop.
BTW, as someone else here said, Starbucks is a great company to work for. They really do care about their employees, they offer a full range of benefits for anyone who works at least part time, and the pay is good for retail. They also insist that their employees deserve respect from management, coworkers and customers. When I worked there, I once had a customer come in on a Sunday morning and march past the short line of people waiting patiently to demand from me a current scone. "I just want a current scone, and I don't want to wait in line," he shouted, and threw a couple dollar bills at me. I tried calmly explaining to him that he would need to wait his turn, as there were three people in front of him. "I DON'T WANT COFFEE, I JUST WANT MY CURRENT SCONE," he yelled. "And he just wants a newspaper, and she just wants a drip coffee," I said, "We don't have separate lines here, so you'll have to wait your turn." Well, the guy continued to huff and puff, and so the manager came over, asked the man what the problem was, he shouted at her that he shouldn't have to wait for a current scone because "IT'S RIGHT THERE IN THE CASE!" The manager had had enough, so she told the man that since he had abused the staff and other customers with his yelling, he wouldn't be getting the current scone at all - she asked him to leave.
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