a review of my personal experience with american corporate coffee chains

Coffee chains. We all know one. Or probably a few. We have a plethora of options to choose from, at any time of day. Take your pick from Overlord Starbucks or the quirkier Dutch Bros; choose from regional variants like Ziggi's or Human Bean. For myself, I have the habit of visiting local chains when I take a trip to a different state. I wonder if people care about coffee chains as much as I do. Probably not. But one thing stands certain; coffee chains permeate every facet of my life.

The history of American coffee houses begins in either Boston or New York (known then as New Amsterdam). Professor Robert Thurston at Miami University asserts that the first coffee house in America is likely the London Coffee House, which was established in Boston in 1669. Of course, the history here may be a bit rocky because this type of documentation was probably not deemed imperative to record in the mid-1600s. Yet, I would gander that coffee houses in America, although new, shared a much older and intrinsically important purpose: to facilitate sober conversation for the progression of thought. Today, it’s not shocking that a café is known as a third place. 

The history here apparently traces back to the Enlightenment, where "Voltaire, Rousseau and Isaac Newton could all be found talking philosophy over coffee," and to clarify, none of those men had ever met each other. However, the importance of coffee houses as a gathering place and breeding ground of thought attests to the need for something like coffee houses to exist. Set in the Romania of the 1920s, For Two Thousand Years is a book which contains the selected journals of Jewish student Mihail Sebastian. Something profound about his experience was the difference between coffee shops in different parts of his city. In one, the privileged consumed as an act of leisure; in another, the disadvantaged and enraged class gathered to discuss and cultivate new ideas. They smoked a different type of cigarette and openly discussed what was on their minds. Regulars didn't come back because they preferred the coffee, but they came back because this was a place like home, a place where their comrades and peers also gathered. And so coffee houses, like bars, possess a very special quality which allows for this type of activity; and today, this special quality is missing or lost. To complicate this, we must account for the loss of cultures and subcultures around America due to numerous factors. 

I want to say that the special quality was lost from coffee when corporate coffee chains took over, with policies that prevent social or political affiliation with a corporation. And I want to say that the special quality wasn't even thought of anymore once drive-thrus replaced the characteristic dine-in experience that is necessary for social gathering. I once wrote a paper for an anthropology course in college. The assignment was called an ethnography, where we occupy a public space of our choosing for a week, maybe two, and observe the culture of the people who gather there -- so I chose my favorite local coffee house next to campus. I noted that the behaviors of regulars was distinctly different from non-regulars; the regulars would stay for an entire day, and then come another day of the week and stay for an entire day yet again. And how wonderful it was to watch each of these regulars, typing at their laptops for hours on end. This doesn't happen at corporate coffee chains. At least, not at one with a drive-thru; and the difference between attitudes and opinions between corporate and local companies is stark. Most local shop employees (with coffee training) must mention or debate the name of the popular sweet drink titled the Caramel Macchiato, which is not the same as a traditional macchiato. Check this article.

I should now mention that I have worked at a licensed Starbucks in a corporate chain for the past 5 years. I’ve noticed how different stores operate, depending on the ownership or licensing of the store, or whatever is going on up there. In case you didn’t know, when a Starbucks location is licensed through a different company, such as Barnes & Noble or a grocery store chain, the licensee uses its weekly sales to purchase goods from the LS STAR Starbucks website (and it does look just like a shopping website). The licensee also determines the specific policy of the location – think dress code, wage, unionization, and so on. There are also things that influence the attitude of the staff. A bit judgmentally, I envied stand-alone stores for their additional staffing and privileges that licensed stores didn’t have. They also constantly protested in my neighborhood for working in what I saw as less-than-harsh conditions. I observe and pay attention to these differences between stores and their cultures because I’ve worked at a few locations, and I also just pay attention at different stores. Befriending many employees from different stores also helps. But once you start paying attention. the volume and sales of a location completely alters the behavior and culture of its staff. Accordingly, the behavior and culture of the staff also determines the volume and sales of the location. 

In addition to the saturation of corporate coffee culture in my own life, my better half also works in coffee, at a corporate office doing operations for a Colorado-based coffee company. It starts with a Z. The way that he describes the corporate ladder and office culture reminds me of the trendy coffee company from the 2016 movie Bad Moms. In the movie, the mom works for a jerk of a boss – a younger, mid-20s college graduate with a horrible ego. But all of the other employees are also fresh college graduates, and the culture is unprofessional. This aspect of the movie stuck with me because it seemed true, for the most part. 

Even though I am tired of them, I can’t entirely hate corporate coffee chains. They’re convenient and it’s interesting to observe the different marketing practices and the variety in operation of stores based on policies. Simultaneously, I also can’t say that their presence in America has been a great thing. These chains contribute significantly to waste, as any food establishment does, and they truthfully only exist for easy revenue for a private owner or corporation. But I can’t afford to be too critical of things in my life if I cannot control their presence. But I want to conceptualize them within the context of my own life rather than ignore their presence. As it’s said, “May God give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” While I’m not wise, I am enough to accept that we can’t change this industry. 

I give corporate coffee chains 2 out of 5 stars.

Hey! Thanks for reading. This is from a prompt inspired by The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. I am reviewing, in book review format, ‘different facets of the human centered universe’ based on my personal experiences with and around them. I did not come up with certain historical facts myself, so here are a couple of sources. Let me know what you guys think. Let me know if there are any other prompts I should respond to.

Ashby, P. (2022, January 4). The history of the US coffee shop. Retrieved June 13, 2025, from Perfect Daily Grind website: https://perfectdailygrind.com/2022/01/the-history-of-the-us-coffee-shop/

Rotondi, J. P. (2020, February 11). How Coffee Fueled Revolutions—and Revolutionary Ideas | HISTORY. Retrieved June 13, 2025, from HISTORY website: https://www.history.com/articles/coffee-houses-revolutions