I think it’s just more expensive because it costs more to produce. It costs more at the grocery store. I’m not a Starbucks fan, but I don’t think this is their fault.

And didn’t they kill a bunch of people for they’re water down below the equator recently? Seems like I read about that somewhere…Jack-booted Starbucks thugs.

“Geeeve us your waaater or elze we keeel you!”

I do know that they have a number of sneaky tricks to protect their interests. I don’t know if that includes murder or not. Rather than being paranoid and shooting for something radically wrong with Starbucks, I will say that I think the whole “corporate coffee shop” scheme is sham. A sham that I fall prey to daily, but a sham nonetheless.

Coffee beans cost, what, six bucks for a pound of them at the grocery store? That’s a retail price! Six bucks! Starbucks is not paying 6 bucks a pound for coffee, they’re probably paying considerably less, especially since they own a lot of their own farms.Starbucks (and any of the other second rate shops) sell their coffee for about two dollars for a large (usually a little more). A pound of coffee beans yields about 30 to 40 cups of regular, plain, old coffee. Nevertheless, if they DID pay 6 bucks for coffee, they’re making their money back in the first three large coffees they sell from every pound of beans, and making at least $50 off of every pound of coffee (most likely they are making way more). The cups probably cost more than the coffee, but who cares you’re still making almost 1000% profit off a pound of coffee.

This is how part-time Starbucks employees get health benefits, and this is why they have a billion stores right here on Virginia Beach Blvd.

“Geeeve us your waaater or elze we keeel you!”

Nevertheless, the point is that as much as we want these two people to be together it just isn’t gonna happen.

And I wouldn’t knock XM too hard, those stations aren’t paying artists the way they should, but XM is sometimes the only way to find music worth listening to.

Anyway, I think that as music continues to be seen as valueless by the majority through the continued proliferation of illegal downloading, etc.,and as it becomes more and more “background” through ringtones and Starbucks XM stations, the true defenders of the faith will begin to rise to the top. There will always be a small number who know the true magic contained in music, and that gives some comfort. Definitely makes me wish sometimes that we could go back to the era when people had to have their friends over and sing at the piano in order to hear a song that they liked.