Starbucking

Freetirement offers me the opportunity to observe, in a real, rather than superficial manner, the
cultural nuances that I never took time to notice. I am not a Starbucker--my daughter always told me that I never even knew how to order because I would ask for a small, old fashioned regular coffee. We usually got take-out or we sat there for a moment or two waiting for the opening of a department store when we arrived too early.

Today, I actually met someone at Starbucks for coffee (yes, I ordered the small, regular) and we sat there for two hours. There were people who had been there longer than we were there and they were still there when we left. There were people with laptops, others just socializing with friends, and everyone joining in everyone else's conversation. I thought to myself, America has become a nation of diversified communities. Although, for the most part, the neighborhood concept is not what it used to be, I am now convinced that neighborhoods and communities have taken other forms. I really saw a "Starbucks community." Now I know why they had to close some stores--people just sit there over one cup of coffee--I thought--OMG, our investment club owns that stock.

I was glad to see that it's not just about coffee, because I think that double caffeine is the alcohol of this generation, but it's another opportunity for this texting, emailing, e-chatting community to engage in face to face conversation (much like the seniors at the casino).

I am now looking at Starbucks in a different light--a communications concept.