Is anyone else getting these “treat reciepts” at their friendly neighborhood Starbucks stores? This morning, when I was running late and the Vivace line was too long^* I got this stamped receipt as an incentive to come back later for an afternoon $2 iced beverage.

treat reciept

* With that compulsory excuse out of the way, lately I’ve been thinking that Starbucks is kind of like Congress, especially after the list of downsized stores was announced: low approval ratings in aggregate, but high approval ratings in particular.

No matter what you think of Starbucks, it’s never good news when a company announces job cuts of around 1,000 people. In a letter to employees, CEO Howard Schultz announced the job cuts, which include about 550 layoffs (the rest will come from natural attrition). About 180 of those positions will be in the Seattle area both at the SODO headquarters and another regional office in the area. This is after February job cuts numbering 600 (220 through layoffs).

They are also closing a number of stores in Australia and laying off 685 workers there as well.

The full story is in the Seattle Times.

Now I personally don’t drinks Starbucks coffee. I don’t much like the taste and given the choice, I’m going to pick a fair or direct trade coffee bean that I know was roasted recently. I could even joke about the fact that there are some intersections downtown where even recently released Mariner (and now Yankee) Richie Sexon could hit a baseball from one store to another. All right, maybe Sexon couldn’t do it. Vidro?

However, not only do I hate to see anyone laid off, but there is one circumstance where I will patronize a Starbucks. When I travel, I often find myself without a car in an unfamiliar location, and while locating an independent coffee shop with fair trade coffee is incredibly easy in Seattle, it isn’t very easy in say, Orlando. Starbucks is predictable and dependable. I know when I walk into a Starbucks, that I can order my triple iced Americano and it will be pretty much the same triple iced Americano I’d get at any other Starbucks.

Hopefully Schultz knows what he’s doing. What do you think? Does he?

Edited to add: And in other Starbucks News, My Ballard has an interesting post on Starbucks’ acquisition of Clover. Apparently they are refusing to sell any more Clover machines to any independent coffee shop. This is one of those moves that prompts all of the Starbucks hate that runs rampant in this town. I have to admit, given how much I love my Clover coffee, this really frosts me as well.

Remember when people were up in arms about Ladro moving in on “neighborhood creating” Victrola way back around the turn of the century [stranger]? Well, I think we all know how that turned out: it’s 2008 and both appear to be thriving. Until today I would have continued that sentence with “… in seeming harmony with a Starbucks just a block away.”

Now, however, we learn that the 15th Avenue Starbucks, one of the city’s oldest, is among the seven Seattle stores on the chopping block [#]. Let the vigils begin. [capitolhillseatle]

This summer is the winter of independent cafes’ discontent. First Broadway loses Vivace to the transit bulldozer, and now the UDistrict’s own Allegro is facing a construction challenge of its own: While the location itself is not threatened, the empty lot across the alley is being developed. This will mean a severe change of atmosphere for the business, which has no frontage on the Ave itself and instead opens onto the alley between that street and 15th. Although we’ve known this was going to happen since 2005, seeing the construction fences up on the old parking lot still comes as a shock, and if the eventual construction ends up being six stories as planned, that corner is going to look a lot different in a few years.

In case you haven’t heard, this Sunday will be your last chance to get a cup of coffee at Vivace’s indoor Capitol Hill location. That building will be torn down to make way for light rail, and the cafe will move down into the Brix building on the other end of Broadway in September, hopefully, although construction looked a little stalled last time I went past.

When I first moved to Seattle I dated a boy who lived right near there, so I spent a whole lot of hours sitting by the window, writing letters and watching the construction turn the reservoir into Cal Anderson Park. If you still want to sit inside and drink your coffee the newer location by REI is there, and nice and airy. Otherwise, I predict that the line at the sidewalk stand is going to get even longer. Or, I suppose, you could go to one of the dozen other coffee options in the near vicinity, but I’ve always liked Vivace best.

As the blogosphere crowdsources a definitive list of which locations Starbucks will be closing as part of its 600-store retrenchment, University Village mall just celebrated the opening of its fourth store, an expansion and refurbishment of the previous SBC location inside the QFC supermarket. The new store — a licensed one by the looks of it — joins the large central location at the mall, the smaller branch in the Crate & Barrel building, and the licensed location inside the Barnes & Noble. Fiddling while Rome burns, or a sign of things to come as UVillage prepare for a major expansion?

This is just an excuse to link something from GraphJam — a spin-off website from the creators of I Can Has Cheezburger.

Starbucks is unveiling its new line of +Energy products today, which look to combine all the nerve-jangling goodness of coffee with the “how did they make this crap legal?!” boost of an energy drink.

The new ingredients that make up this concoction are, to no surprise, guarana, B-vitamins and ginseng. Customers can add the new product to any drink by simply saying “plus energy” after placing their order. After five sips, experts predict you’ll begin having intense hallucinations and not be able to sit still for the next six hours.

OK, I made that part up, but really – does subpar coffee really need to be mixed with ingredients that I’ve always referred to as “a dash of crack?” Is this really a good idea?

P-I story here.

(I especially enjoyed the quote from the PR lady about how this new product is designed for “an active lifestyle.”)

Whilst heading back to Seattle from Bellingham this weekend, I discovered this little gem inside of a Marysville coffee shop (yes, the evil “S” word). I had a cup of vanilla rooibos that was a little on the sweet side, with a hint of cinnamon and my other half had the silver tip which, in my snobby tea opinion, was “spot on” (say it with an upper-crust English accent, you know you want to)! Do you think full leaf tea would be a good addition to our local chain? Would you sit down for a cuppa?