Interim








November 26, 2010

The Stealthy Vagrant



November 25, 2010

JFK/JetBlue/Bahamas/Opt Out Fizzle

The Bahamas

Greasing the Palm

What Is It???



November 24, 2010

Where Will You Be Staying, Sir

The Bahamas



October 5, 2010

Refreshing

Newfoundland



October 4, 2010

Not much activity recently, other than a couple of new East Coast stores, but I'm now finally on the way to Newfoundland. I visited three new Montreal stores yesterday, two new Quebec City stores earlier today (narrowly avoiding a FAKE store that they had put on the list to trap me), and now I'm struggling to make it to Halifax so I can fly to St. John's and visit the two stores there. Hope I make it.

Posting a lot more on Twitter, LiveJournal, and Facebook. My updates are no longer necessarily on here, although I'm going to try to remember to post links from those threads here, for reference.



August 1, 2010

Been a while since I encountered a STORE OF SHAME.



May 7, 2010

Like I said before, not much Starbucking going on this year, due to my long contract and my Scrabble focus, which is why it kinda sucks that my latest Starbucking trip turned into a debacle. With Buffalo on my schedule for the weekend, I looked ahead to four new stores in Toronto and surrounding cities. I noticed two stores were downtown, and a few weeks earlier I had had a friend call one (from Canada) to find out if it was open on the weekend (no), and if not, what time it closed on Friday (7). That meant to visit I'd have to show up first thing Friday morning and then rush to my tournament, but because of Iron Man 2 I just couldn't pull that off without giving up too much sleep (yes, I'm getting old).

Before heading out to Buffalo on Thursday, I called the other store and was told it closed at 8:00, which meant I could at least get that one, if the early bird tournament finished before 6:00. Well, I played thru that final game as quick as I could and drove from from the Adam's Mark around 5:50. There was a good delay at the border, but I wasn't called into immigration or searched, and that meant I could still make the store. Speeds on the QEW were 70-80 MPH as usual, and I was confident I'd make it to Wellington & Simco by 8:00, even with the usual Friday-evening inbound traffic.

I reached the store about 7:45, parked in a building across the street, and rushed across hoping to get in and out before any parking attendant noticed. Except the doors were locked, and the sign said... 7:30!!! AARRGH!!! I'd been through this before, and I rushed across the street and retrieved my articles. A barista actually opened the door and looked at them while I explained that I just needed a canned DoubleShot and that I'd given them $5 that they could ring up in the morning. This had worked many times before (except for the time that fucking bitch whore manager in Yakima called the cops), but this time neither that barista or the other one he looked to for direction would budge. Even after I explained I didn't know when I'd be able to return to Toronto.

Undaunted, I went to a store down the street that was still open and asked the supervisor if he knew my story. He did, and he was kind enough to call the other store and try to talk them into selling me that DoubleShot. No dice. Man, I was pissed. It's not that the store closed at 7:30--that happens all the time. And let me make it clear I wouldn't expect a store to stay open later for me. But in this case, it was one of their baristas that had given me information that had caused me to drive two stressful hours in rain and traffic, on top of being sleep-deprived due to the midnight movie. That trip downtown was a couple of hours I could have spent sleeping or something, and since they made the mistake, they should have taken steps to correct it, especially since all the barista had to do was take my $5, walk over to the counter and grab a DoubleShot. Absolutely no harm whatsoever.

No idea who that @#%^ barista was who gave me the wrong time, and I guess it doesn't matter since everyone makes mistakes, but those three who wouldn't help me really need to learn about customer service!

To wrap up, I have no idea when I'll be able to return and visit that @#$%^ store.



April 30, 2010

It was much later than I thought when I finally got across the border, and well past midnight (maybe 1:00) by the time I got down to Seattle, and I knew I wasn't going to have time to get as much sleep as I needed. I parked on a side street off Aurora just north of downtown, and I texted Melody to move our meeting to 8:30, resetting my alarm for 8:00.

Ended up waking up earlier, around 7:30, and that gave me time to stop at Top Pot Donuts first. I couldn't remember if that Capital Hill location was the one I hadn't visited, but when I asked I learned it was the Mill Creek location that is new. Dang, I could have gotten there on my way to Vancouver!!!

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!!! During my meeting/interview with Melody I had to go up to the counter to get some change for the parking meter, and when I turned around who was standing a couple of feet away from me but Howard Schultz himself!!! It was clear he was not going to say hello to me, but it's possible he didn't notice or recognize me. That's the operative question in my mind, and in Melody's blog entry. As busy as he is, I can't assume he has looked at any article with my photo for a long time, maybe 10 years.

Back when I visited 15th Street Coffee & Tea, I had forgtten about the alcohol. I almost forgot this time, too, with so much going on at Roy Street that morning. Caught myself before time was up, though, and I was able to order a glass of wine. At 9:00 AM--can you believe that? Where else but a casino can a person get a drink at 9:00 AM???

Melody and I could have chatten for a lot longer, but as I told her in the interview, Scrabble is the priority this year, and I had to leave, albeit a bit later than planned, to drive down to Portland and have a lousy tournament.



April 29, 2010

Finally, after nearly two months, some new Starbucking action. Had to endure some hassle, though, but I made it. The primary reason for the trip was a big Scrabble tournament in Portland, which I effectively had to attend if I was going to have any hope of catching a rival for total number of games for the season. The early bird tournament started on Friday, but I made plans to fly in Thursday so I could visit the two new stores in Seattle and two up in Surrey, BC. I couldn't find a reasonably-priced direct flight from either PHL or EWR, so I had to book a 7:27 AM flight in order to arrive in the early afternoon. To avoid having to get up at 4:00 AM, I drove down the night before I slept in the parking lot. I could have slept in the terminal, but frankly my car is much, much more comfortable.

Set the alarm for 6:00, cutting it pretty close, and I actually got up just five minutes before that. After shaving and then going to the wrong terminal, I ended up being the last one to board the United flight, but it ended up not mattering. After about 45 minutes on the plane, the pilot announced that there was a fuel leak that would take at least an hour to repair, and we had to deplane and rebook. As you can imagine, the line at the United counter outside the gate was extremely long. Actually, I could have been one of the first in that line, because as soon as I figured out where the pilot was going with his announcement, I grabbed my bags and rushed to the front of the plane. But I had forgotten my iPod, water bottle, and paperback, and once I had returned to retrieve them I had to wait behind everybody else.

It was rather obvious at that point that I needed to exit security and go back out to the main counters, and there I was first in line. This was extremely fortiutous, because I was rebooked on an American flight departing at 9:10, in just 30 minutes. The United agent told me I wasn't going to make it, but I said I had to try (or wait five hours for another flight). I went outside and ran from C/D to Terminal A and rushed up to security. Unfortunately, I the TSA agent told me I needed to check-in. Turns out the United agent had not actually given me a boarding pass (I guess she couldn't print one out on another airline). Back downstairs, and thankfully there was no line. The American agent also told me I wasn't going to make it, and my reply was the same--I had to try.

My chances of making that flight were slim, and my hurry was evident, so of course the TSA decided to give me my most extensive screening... ever. An agent even had me turn the waistband of my jeans inside out. Given that I had a boarding pass from a plane I'd just been on, this is of course incredibly stupid, and I made it clear to the agents that this is why nobody likes the TSA (not that they understood).

But it got better. I rushed to the gate and it was still open. I asked if I had any time, and they agent replied how much time, but I had already put my bags down and rushed across the hall to fill my bottle of water. A group of four TSA agents said something like "whoa", but I didn't quite understand and just needed a minute to get water anyway. Guess they felt the need to exercise there authority, because even though I'd just cleared security, and even though I had left the bags in full view of both the TSA agents and the American Airlines personel, and within visible distance of me when I turned around, the decided to inspect the bags anyway. Clearly just flexing their muscle and trying to put a passenger in his place. Yet another reason why everybody hates the TSA, and why humans should not be given authority over one another. They always abuse it.

For all the day's hassles, at least I caught a break at the border. With the sun fast setting, had been subjected to a search and/or immigration, I might not have made it to Nordel Annex before sunset. Thankfully, unlike my last two crossings into BC, all I had to do was answer a bunch of questions at the plaza, and I was on my way. I even had time to make it to Central City Shopping Centre before nightfall, but that store was inside so it didn't matter.



March 11, 2010

Haven't updated my Starbucks blog in months, since my Mexico trip, because I've been focused on Scrabble. Not much has happened, but here's a rundown.

Only two new Starbucks visited, Cleveland and Midlothian (VA). Two more coming up weekend after next in Florida.

Several minor interviews, including some students in Darmstadt, Germany.

A new wave of closures after several months without.

The removal of the old Starbucks store locator after several years of being able to access it via the old link, even though it was not on the website anymore. I had to scramble to find a locator on one of the foreign sites that served up data in a format that I could easily parse.

That's pretty much it. 2010 is going to be light on the Starbucking, because I'm focusing on Scrabble



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