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I'm not sure where I fit in as a Stabucks customer. In a perfect world, where I had lots of time, I doubt I would ever set foot in a Starbucks. I prefer making good coffee at home and I rarely drink coffee after 3:00pm.

Yes, you can get better coffee, but Starbucks is predictable and extremely convenient to my work office. Their "Frankenfood Egg Sandwiches" are pretty terrible, but guess what? They are also very convenient for people on the move and quickly get some grease, calories and sodium into your system. I think there are basically two types of Starbucks customers, corporate slaves like me, who just need a strong coffee fix during the day, don't care too much about the prices, don't care that "Mo's Coffee has ten times better coffee," but it is 12 blocks away, and just care about speed, caffeine, and convenience.

The other type Starbucks customer, seems to have all the time in the world, they sit there, read papers, play with laptops, chat with friends, etc..

My guess is there reasons for patronizing Starbucks is much the same though, convenience and predictability.

PS. They dont as sh1ty as it does in that pic above.

The best I can tell, the people dissing the Starbucks breakfast sandwiches have not actually eaten one. I had my first in Philadelphia last weekend. It was really good. It was not an Egg McMuffin (which I appreciate for being the healthiest widely available breakfast sandwich, but the spongy muffin and American "cheese" are far from good). I had the ham, egg and cheese version. The Black Forest ham and cheddar cheese were both really good, as was the slightly oversized English muffin. There was nothing special about the egg part, but neither was their anything objectionable about it. It was by far the best breakfast fast food offering I've ever had of the bread/egg/meat/cheese variety.

The people who complain about appearance of the sandwiches remind me of the time a friend of mine was invited to judge the baked goods competition at the state fair. A number of the people on the panel with her wanted to hand out ribbons based on appearance alone without actually tasting the baked goods. Same concept.

Starbucks was in need of more non-sweet breakfast selections. They hit this one out of the ball park. I can't wait until they're in all locations.

Frankly, I'd be happy not to run into any of the grousers in Starbucks.

I tried the Timmy breakfast sandwich yesterday and it was OK, better than a McMuffin but only marginally so. The main point for it is the biscuit that actually tastes a bit like a biscuit instead of the microwaved much of an english muffin at MickeyD....

I am a big starbucks customer, but I too was disappointed in the sandwhich problem. I think they should serve only those things that they can actually give the same time and attention to- that they give their coffee service.

Buy local at least. out source and make it special within each outlet area... I am sure that there is a company at least in relationship to the city starbucks, who could do these better and still deliver periodically throughout the day?

Even Dunkin' Donuts will make you an egg sandwich from scratch. Granted, they cook the egg in a microwave, but still.

Starbucks won't even toast a bagel for you. It's a little weird, given how elaborate some of their coffee drinks are.

I went on tour for two weeks down south and as a vegetarian, all I wanted was an egg sandwich, which was damned near impossible. I think Starbucks rolling this out in NYC is silly with all the other good options out there, but for the most part, a good egg deli sandwich is not to be had everywhere in the country.

i'm going to be unpopular here... but i actually find them quite tasty... and i'm not a big starbucks fanatic. i'm comparing them to mcdonalds, dunkin donuts and an egg and cheese at a standard new york megadeli buffet... which i think is only fair, and frankly i think they're tastier and worth the extra buck. sure it's no clinton st bakery, balthazar or even any number of popular deli/grills... but that's an unfair comparison.

it is 'convenience food for the latte set' and i think it's worth the $2.75 to get the egg, cheese, bacon on an english muffin and judge for yourself if you haven't already...

I don't like Starbucks. The coffee tastes burnt. The people in line are all wigged out tryng to make sure they order "correctly". The people who work there think they are better than the people they are waiting on because they know the secret handshake. I don't even like the music they play.
Starbucks is stepford people stuff and I hate stepford people stuff. Rise against the barista and go somewhere where ordering a cup a coffee is not brain surgery. Coffee is supposed to be easy to deal with. Don't be Meg Ryan (When Harry Met Sally) and take 2 hours to get coffee.

They will definitely have more success outside of NY, where there aren't superior street vendors on every corner.

Sandro: Yes, it's a quasi-Proustian thing for me. I know that the McMuffin sandwich isn't as good as a made-to-order sandwich or even that good for you, but something about it says "breakfast sandwich" to me on a primal level. "Edible Kryptonite": heh. That's rich.

Adam, it's funny that you say that about a McDonald's eggwich, because I myself have quasi-Proustian feelings about the basic Egg McMuffin. A driving buddy and I would routinely have breakfast at the same McDonald's on a Delaware commercial strip on the drive home from college for holidays, etc. I'd actually look forward to the stop, and we always seemed to land there circa 8 AM, if I recall correctly. Two egg Macs and two lowfat milks (an Eastern breakfast version of the Double-Double). Now, I almost never hit up McDonald's, but they were good. Wouldn't you agree that if McDonald's also went to stupid Starbucks route of putting out for show a cold, clammy eggwich exemplar, you might take your breakfast business elsewhere? Now we're talking about marketing, it's true. I'll never know how a 'Bucks eggwich tastes, because the lure they've put out is the equivalent of edible Kryptonite.