Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Rule, Britannia

Are Starbucks stores cleaner in the U.S. than in the U.K. because Americans are accustomed to cleaning up after themselves while Brits are not? That's what one Starbucks visitor says, and some Brits posting to StarbucksGossip agree.

No offense, Brits, but man, it would be nice to have something Americans are being praised for these days. With Bush in office, it's tough to find those things.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's true... I live in Ireland, and it's the same as in the UK... you go to any fast food place, any college dining hall, and people leave their trash behind them...

there are dedicated wait staff that all they seem to do is pick up after others...

i find it pretty ridiculous, and it makes me kinda mad to have to clear my own table if the waitstaff haven't made their rounds yet...

someone at work teased me, You Americans must not have the "Ignore it" gene that the Irish have...

Anonymous said...

At Starbucks prices, I would probably expect someone to clean up after me. But within reason, of course. I wouldn't trash the place on purpose.

Then again, I don't care for their coffee or their prices, so I'm not apt to be found there too often.

Anonymous said...

I live in London and the bathrooms in the Starbucks here are "SKETCHY" to say the least. I have been to cleaner bathrooms in unmanned rest stops on Interstate 80 in the US.

Anonymous said...

This is so true and it's not just Starbucks. I lived in the UK for three years and noticed in nearly every city and village that at mall food courts, along streets, at fast food restaurants, in coffee shops and nearly everywhere you could imagine people did not pick up after themselves.

Anonymous said...

I'm a Seattlite living in London, and indeed the Starbucks here are pretty disgusting. It's a totally different experience. It's not just the customers refusing to bus, either; it's the staff, the atmosphere, everything. Not very nice. In the States, however, I enjoy it very much.

Anonymous said...

My local starbucks seems quite idiosyncratic, in that the people are really nice and it's really clean... there's not actually a lot of room at all for people to take cups to... seriously, there's a tiny tiny space by the milk/sugar and the counter has room for about two/three trays, and it's where they give people drinks!

London places can be quite assholish, though, I agree!

(By the way! I like a lot of American stuff, so even though I'm defending the Birmingham/Solihull starbucks it doesn't mean I think you suck! This site is American and it is good, for example.

I am soo coherent today.)