Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks

Everything but the Coffee casts a fresh eye on the world's most famous coffee company, looking beyond baristas, movie cameos, and Paul McCartney CDs to understand what Starbucks can tell us about America. Bryant Simon visited hundreds of Starbucks around the world to ask, Why did Starbucks take hold so quickly with consumers? What did it seem to provide over and above a decent cup of coffee? Why at the moment of Starbucks' profit-generating peak did the company lose its way, leaving observers baffled about how it might regain its customers and its cultural significance? Everything but the Coffee probes the company's psychological, emotional, political, and sociological power to discover how Starbucks' explosive success and rapid deflation exemplify American culture at this historical moment. Most importantly, it shows that Starbucks speaks to a deeply felt American need for predictability and class standing, community and authenticity, revealing that Starbucks' appeal lies not in the product it sells but in the easily consumed identity it offers.

Customer Reviews:

Captures the zeitgeist of this generation

By Hallie - June 29, 2012

Reading this book is akin to drinking a strong, rich espresso in a literary sea of cloying frappuccinos. It's a book for anyone wanting to decipher the hipsters wearing those obnoxious Chuck Sneakers drinking the $2 Pabst beer, the Whole Foods shopper carrying the reusable shopping bag, and of course, the Starbucks drinker who ordered the iced single venti toffeenut soy latte (no foam).

If I was a marketing, sociology, history, business or economics professor, I'd mandate my students to read this book. Instead, I'm a 20-something enjoying every paragraph to the last drop. The way it weaves all of these disciplines into such a poignant narrative of Starbucks is impressive. The dizzying breadth and more importantly, depth of knowledge contained herein would have me believe that this book took the work of several authors. I'm going to copy and paste a paragraph to exemplify what I mean:

"To display smarts, superior tastes, and even enlightened politics, the upper... read more