Jump to content

In Defence of Starbucks in Bangkok


californiabeachboy

Recommended Posts

I recently was fortunate enough to have another visit to Bkk.

I always stay near Ari, so I arranged to meet a Thai friend at the Starbucks next to Ari BTS. But she was late (big surprise there), so I sat in the Starbucks for about 30 minutes and had a chance to survey the field.

There were so many 20 something Thai/Asian/Western people who were obvioulsy camped out there - they had their mobile phone, laptop, and God knows what else. And a cup of coffee, and from what I could tell, they never bought another. If they had a tent they would have camped out there.

I felt sorry for Starbucks, if that is possible. We all love to complain about the price of coffee at Starbucks, but in Bangkok I believe that they are not a coffee company, they are a company that rents air-conditioned space with good wifi and comfortable chairs.

Edited by californiabeachboy
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 73
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

It's interesting that you should start this topic today. I made comments in another topic about the Israel and Palestine conflict. They were not favorable toward Israel and I know there are a lot of people who boycott Israeli products. One of the first sites I saw about boycotting the Israeli economy was covered with different logos for companies we should not give our money to. The ones that really jumped out at me were Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and McDonald's. There were other big companies as well.

I just thought of something! I wonder if the 'Star' in Starbucks refers to the Star of David, which is the main symbol of the Israeli flag.

Edited by waynethor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks in Chiang Mai does not have free wifi so is it still free in Bangkok? Up here, Starbucks partners with a wifi company and - guess what - Starbucks will SELL you the access to that wifi by the hour/day/week/month.

50 baht last time i saw a sign here in Bangkok.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks in Chiang Mai does not have free wifi so is it still free in Bangkok? Up here, Starbucks partners with a wifi company and - guess what - Starbucks will SELL you the access to that wifi by the hour/day/week/month.

50 baht last time i saw a sign here in Bangkok.

Yeah, here it's something like 50 thb/hour, 150 thb/week, and 300 thb/month. Each log on session times out at 90 mins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Star bucks (and true coffee) in Charmchuri square, bangkok, holey crap there are Jula uni students camped out there the whole time. 4 students and one cup. heaps of free seating in the downstairs cafeteria.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently was fortunate enough to have another visit to Bkk.

I always stay near Ari, so I arranged to meet a Thai friend at the Starbucks next to Ari BTS. But she was late (big surprise there), so I sat in the Starbucks for about 30 minutes and had a chance to survey the field.

There were so many 20 something Thai/Asian/Western people who were obvioulsy camped out there - they had their mobile phone, laptop, and God knows what else. And a cup of coffee, and from what I could tell, they never bought another. If they had a tent they would have camped out there.

I felt sorry for Starbucks, if that is possible. We all love to complain about the price of coffee at Starbucks, but in Bangkok I believe that they are not a coffee company, they are a company that rents air-conditioned space with good wifi and comfortable chairs.

A little off topic but I quite remember macdonalds having that issue of people 'camping out' and they brought in a '1hr Stay Rule'.. This would have been 1-2yrs back.

Anyone see that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What! I spent 90 baht for a cup of coffee (twice what it costs here in the USA, by the way). My rule is that if I buy a coffee in Starbucks and spend less than 30 minutes simply for the air conditioning, I am NOT a freeloader!

So you were in there for about 30 minutes and bought 1 coffee, and in your OP you complain about others being there for about the same time as you and buying 1 coffee? Something special about you then?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks is a great example of how people are completely full of shit.

Every person you talk to will say they hate Starbucks, their coffee is awful and they know somewhere far better, and yet there are multiple stores in every town and city around the world with most of them busy. Go figure.

The world is full of sheep.

Go figure.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks is a great example of how people are completely full of shit.

Every person you talk to will say they hate Starbucks, their coffee is awful and they know somewhere far better, and yet there are multiple stores in every town and city around the world with most of them busy. Go figure.

Starbucks make crap coffee........compared to what you can get in Australia, Thais/Asians coffee tastes are relativly new, the worst coffee ever that i drank was IN a Starbucks in HK, the second worst was very far north of Thailand something to do with honey, no sugar just honey for sweetener i had to buy a coke to kill the dreadful taste in my mouth.

The only Starbucks in Melbourne is a popular hang out for asian students, very few white people in there.

Ive never known Starbucks to offer free wifi in my time in BKK, though i use to hang out at one of there stores at Terminal 21waiting for the x TGF to Finnish work using the free T21 wifi, the trick was to order tea, eventually i learned if i ordered what here in Australia is a normal cup compared to the American super sized version the coffee was just respectable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks coffee sucks.

I'm very confused now, Starbucks have coffee.

I have often walked past Starbucks outlets and noticed a strange hot brew that they were selling but there is no way on this earth that i would have called it coffee.

There again I have problems understanding why 'Pizza hut' isn't just called 'soft doughy bread with a load of inedible crap piled on top hut'.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks is a great example of how people are completely full of shit.

Every person you talk to will say they hate Starbucks, their coffee is awful and they know somewhere far better, and yet there are multiple stores in every town and city around the world with most of them busy. Go figure.

Oh please! Do you know what a logical fallacy is? This one is called an "appeal to popularity". Just because something is popular does not mean it is good. Here are a few examples.......

McDonalds

Justin Beiber

Korean Fashion

I rest my case.........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's interesting that you should start this topic today. I made comments in another topic about the Israel and Palestine conflict. They were not favorable toward Israel and I know there are a lot of people who boycott Israeli products. One of the first sites I saw about boycotting the Israeli economy was covered with different logos for companies we should not give our money to. The ones that really jumped out at me were Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and McDonald's. There were other big companies as well.

I just thought of something! I wonder if the 'Star' in Starbucks refers to the Star of David, which is the main symbol of the Israeli flag.

Starbucks is not an Israeli product.

Neither are Coca-Cola or McDonalds.

The star in Starbucks has nothing to do with Israel or Jews.

Of course the star of David is on the Israeli flag and also an ancient symbol of Judaism.

If people are going to boycott Israeli or West Bank products specifically, at least bloody get it right!

Also if people boycott products because of ties to Jews, that's something completely different (in a bad way).

Edited by Jingthing
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks should never be defended, no matter what the circumstances.

Lol...that is so over the top....but I think I might actually agree with you.

I am actually a huge coffee consumer and my biggest gripe of all is that Starbucks coffee simply is not that good.

that's because Starbucks deliberately over roasts its beans.

I can never understand people paying through the nose to go to a coffee equivalent of McDonald's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks is a great example of how people are completely full of shit.

Every person you talk to will say they hate Starbucks, their coffee is awful and they know somewhere far better, and yet there are multiple stores in every town and city around the world with most of them busy. Go figure.

Oh please! Do you know what a logical fallacy is? This one is called an "appeal to popularity". Just because something is popular does not mean it is good. Here are a few examples.......

McDonalds

Justin Beiber

Korean Fashion

I rest my case.........

No. I do know what "I don't care what anyone else says, my opinion is the right one" is, tho'. It's a common belief found everywhere, and seems to be very prevalent on certain websites.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks is a great example of how people are completely full of shit.

Every person you talk to will say they hate Starbucks, their coffee is awful and they know somewhere far better, and yet there are multiple stores in every town and city around the world with most of them busy. Go figure.

Oh please! Do you know what a logical fallacy is? This one is called an "appeal to popularity". Just because something is popular does not mean it is good. Here are a few examples.......

McDonalds

Justin Beiber

Korean Fashion

I rest my case.........

No. I do know what "I don't care what anyone else says, my opinion is the right one" is, tho'. It's a common belief found everywhere, and seems to be very prevalent on certain websites.

You seem to be the only one pushing that attitude. The rest of us simply stated our dislike for Starbucks coffee and you seemed to take it personally......strange.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starbucks is a great example of how people are completely full of shit.

Every person you talk to will say they hate Starbucks, their coffee is awful and they know somewhere far better, and yet there are multiple stores in every town and city around the world with most of them busy. Go figure.

Oh please! Do you know what a logical fallacy is? This one is called an "appeal to popularity". Just because something is popular does not mean it is good. Here are a few examples.......

McDonalds

Justin Beiber

Korean Fashion

I rest my case.........

No. I do know what "I don't care what anyone else says, my opinion is the right one" is, tho'. It's a common belief found everywhere, and seems to be very prevalent on certain websites.

You seem to be the only one pushing that attitude. The rest of us simply stated our dislike for Starbucks coffee and you seemed to take it personally......strange.......

Just 'cause you're a majority doesn't mean you're right. Ciao.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.







×
×
  • Create New...