[throw_away]

There was a big brouhaha about the 15th street store because it looks so similar to smith, the pub next door. The fact that it's starbucks, but doesn't say that it's starbucks (they do say that they serve starbucks coffee, which no indy coffee shop would advertise), and the apparent copying of their neighbor left a bad taste in the mouths of many seattlites.

I've never been in, but I wonder why they chose Seattle as the test-bed for this sort of thing. There are so many cities that don't have a vibrant local coffee-shop culture (there are at least three indy shops within a two block radius of my apartment & the mom&pop convenience store across the street has an espresso machine). Why not try it out someplace where the consumers aren't as discriminating and aren't as likely to resent them for doing this?