Inspired?
Screenshot of ZDNet
I’ve never really thought about it, since I’ve ruled out the possibility.
Travel, after all, can be a crippling experience. It invites tolerance while excluding notions of predictability – or, quite often, basic politeness.
You know you will be chosen, one way or another. You are not entirely sure when and where the buffering will occur.
For many people, airports offer exciting experiences often reserved for people undergoing surgery without anesthesia. The lines, the peculiar looks from members of the TSA, the crowds jostling around every square foot, as if no one really knew where they were going.
And then there are the early morning flights.
You navigate your own consciousness, while you navigate your way to a coffee. Which coffee. Just let it heat and boost.
However, often you stand in a long line, trying to control your abilities. The people in front of you, also without a sense of alertness, search for their words and needs. They then rummaged through their pockets and wallets to find the credit card they mistyped.
Before you know it, you’ll eventually get your coffee right when your flight is being called. And spill half of it on your hand, making you curse the very idea of the trip. And life itself.
Rather strange, Starbucks gave you a thought. It just doesn’t want you to know it has.
I judge this from a surprising piece of information that I recently learned. The Points Guy report that Starbucks has expanded mobile ordering at airports. Across America.
The service appears to have started last June at Washington Dulles International Airport.
One can imagine that members of Congress will receive the first drops.
Maybe you, like me, didn’t know this was a thing. Perhaps you, like me, may for the first time in your life consider ordering via cell phone a real virtue.
Please forgive me, but when I recently saw one of Starbucks take-out stores in actionI feel for humanity and its impending plight.
Cold and lifeless like an iced coffee.
Readers – well, one – criticize me for assuming that people (somewhat) younger than me are just more interested in staring at their phones than talking to people. This reader, who may even have been a bartender, accused me of “mercy” and “contempt”. (Don’t I have the right to be a little contemptuous? Not everyone, every now and then?)
He accused me of “not keeping up with the times”, which made me come across as a rather old-fashioned phrase. And he added: “We make connections with the people that matter, not any idiot who thinks he’s chatting with a barista.”
Naturally, connections with important people are made through a device, rather than in real life. Naturally, I was hurt.
Now, with the discovery that I can skip the Starbucks airport route, I want to reevaluate my rightful contempt.
Related:
I conclude that airports are different because they are much more convenient. If you go to your local Starbucks day in and day out, you may fall into a friendly relationship with one or more employees. At the airport, however, you’re a desperate person looking for an instant hit (I’ve said this many times before).
You are really there to buy and fly.
Oh, I’m sorry Starbucks didn’t roll out this airport service as soon as they created the mobile app. The miracle it will achieve.
Now, everyone at the airport can book an appointment at Starbucks. Isn’t that how tech companies always say they’re going to make the world a better place?
