Kicking Starbucks to the Curb

I like going to Starbucks at 5:30 a.m. I like the ambiance. The music. The comfy chairs. The decor. I like the fact that very few people are around at that hour of the morning. I can sit down in a quiet corner, plug my laptop into a wall outlet, connect to the free wifi and work away contentedly for several hours. My morning Starbucks visits are very soothing... but also fairly expensive.




Just for the sake of argument, let's do some math. I visit Starbucks about 20 times a month, which works out to 240 times a year. My grande hot chocolate costs $3.62 which works out to... about $870 a year. That's a significant sum of money. I could buy a new laptop, one with a working battery, for $435. I could buy a new camera, one that doesn't annoy me, for $435. Essentially, I am choosing to spend my money on empty calories which give me nothing... other than a tire around the middle.

I could, of course, switch from hot chocolate to mint tea and only spend $500 a year. But do I really want to spend $500 on 240 cups of tea when I could easily buy that same number of tea bags at Superstore for a fraction of the cost?

Finally there is the issue of the gas that I use driving to my local Starbucks 240 times a year. If I drive 8 km (return trip) every time I visit Starbucks... that works out to a fair number of kilometers. I could, of course, ride my bike, which I often do during the summer, but winter bike riding is too... difficult. And so I take the easy way out.

This morning, I am sitting here, sipping a mint tea listening to the sounds of a busy coffee shop through my head phones courtesy of YouTube. I am at home and trying to mimic the experience of sitting in Starbucks. Other than the fact that my desk chair is not as comfy as the leather chairs at Starbucks, I am doing a fairly good job.

There are times though, when it is good just to get away from home, and find a quiet place where I can sit and work. I have tried the local library but it is even farther away than Starbucks. There is the local college, which is much closer, but lacks free public wifi.

So, at the end of the day, I suppose a combination of options are possible. Home as all the benefits of free wifi and tea on demand, although it lacks a bit in ambiance and is not exactly distraction-free. I could visit the local college library for non-wifi work. And every once in a while, I could treat myself to a Starbucks visit.