Starbucks Coffee

Expensive Coffee. Tick.
Pricey Sandwiches. Tick.
Toasted sandwiches. Tick.
Cookies. Tick.
Big cakes. Tick.

If there's one thing Starbucks has, it's the formula.
Take an average blend of coffee, take some fair-to-middling food and some ultra sweet cakes, find yourself a wide range of unique shops and kit them all out identically (variety is SO over-rated) and serve to the public. Enjoy.

I am not a fan of Starbucks, but have been known to find myself in one of their awful identikit cafes, and while I have found the staff to be generally very good (they should be, Starbucks is in the Top 50 Best Places To Work league), the whole experience has the heart and soul of a production line. From the careful choice of where the sofas, chairs and tables are placed, to the overbearing and terribly insincere leaflets on display ("We are so good to our farmers, and here's why" etc. etc. ), Starbucks is the place that doesn't dare to be different.

As you're reading Trusted Places, then trust me, you can do better than this.