Starbucks has been my family’s go-to coffee franchise since 1994. My mother and two older sisters are the main coffee drinkers in the family. I never had the desire to drink coffee … until the summer of 2018.
When I was still in high school, I never understood why people chose to go to Starbucks for coffee. It did not make sense to me, especially since my family had a Keurig that worked perfectly fine. I still remember the times when my mom would make a cup of coffee at home, drink it, then buy another coffee at Starbucks (she still does that today). I assumed the taste of the Starbucks coffee must have been that GOOD.
I was wrong. The taste of the coffee was good, but the experience was even better. Starbucks sells the experience to its customers, which makes the number of loyal customers consistent. Before the pandemic, Starbucks had a very welcoming environment. It was a nice place to sit down and talk to family and friends. It was nice to see people working on their laptops and being productive. The employees were always so friendly.
Overall, it was a good amount of positive experiences. My family enjoyed the environment at Starbucks more than any other franchise. It also helped that there were a few different Starbucks locations to choose from within a six-mile radius.
I would still tag along on the car rides to Starbucks because I enjoyed other items on the menu, particularly the pastry items. If you know me, I have a major sweet tooth. Coffee was not sweet enough for me, so I would order a sweet tea or hot white chocolate. No one told me I could get extra syrup. All I wanted was a sweet drink, and the extra syrup could have done the trick to get me hooked on Starbucks much sooner.
My tastebuds began to enjoy coffee in the summer of 2018 before my sophomore year of college. It took a while to figure out what I liked, but I liked the taste of iced caramel pecan lattes and any other combination of sweet-tasting syrups. In colder outdoor temperatures, I would get hot lattes.
Although Starbucks is the go-to coffee franchise for my family, I can no longer afford Starbucks every day and need to look elsewhere. I am drinking coffee to get through the rest of my senior year, so at this point, it does not matter which franchise. If that does not work out, then I can always get a Keurig.
