Americans - why do you walk around with your coffee?

Good call. Forgot about that.

The solution is simple - their briefcase needs a cupholder (patent pending).

kjhkjkh wrote:

why do people always walk with a starbucks coffee cup? How come I hardly see a Mcdonalds or 7-11 cup?

starbucks has the market captured. They're like gas stations, there's one on every corner. They also offer a much wider variety of coffee drinks that the other places you listed don't offer.

Critical Thinking wrote:

I am an American who sometimes walks around with a cup of coffee. Sometimes I want to walk around, and sometimes I want to drink coffee. Sometimes the desire to do each of those things arises simultaneously, and I don't see any reason not to do both together. Of course I'm not a mind reader, but I imagine many Americans feel similarly.

Thank you sir. Posts like yours keep me coming back here everyday.

Yeah, well, I had a euro student intern for 6 months. Dude from Danemark, drank more friggin coffee than the rest of us combined...

the Apple of coffee wrote:

kjhkjkh wrote:

why do people always walk with a starbucks coffee cup? How come I hardly see a Mcdonalds or 7-11 cup?

starbucks has the market captured. They're like gas stations, there's one on every corner. They also offer a much wider variety of coffee drinks that the other places you listed don't offer.

You can't be serious. Starbucks serves good coffee that tastes pleasant and gives caffeine.

McCafe/7-11 serve the equivalent of cough syrup for caffeine. You almost want to plug your nose while drinking

In SE Asia they walk around with a cigarette in their hand, and in France they're usually holding their dick.

Goodgravitas wrote:

the Apple of coffee wrote:

starbucks has the market captured. They're like gas stations, there's one on every corner. They also offer a much wider variety of coffee drinks that the other places you listed don't offer.

You can't be serious. Starbucks serves good coffee that tastes pleasant and gives caffeine.

McCafe/7-11 serve the equivalent of cough syrup for caffeine. You almost want to plug your nose while drinking

can't be serious about what? You confirmed everything I wrote.

Taste: Starbucks ~ McDonalds >> 7-Eleven

Value: McDonalds >> Starbucks >> 7-Eleven

Coffee cups are the new cigarettes.

Since I moved to the States I've picked up the habit of walking around with a coffee and eating your my lunch at my desk.

I know in the UK Starbucks serve coffee in a ceramic mug and in Canada they don't put on a plastic lid on when they serve your coffee.

When I worked at an investment bank in Switzerland (Credit-Suisse), company rules mandated that you took at least 2 coffee breaks and a minimum 30 minute lunch break away from your desk.

While Starbucks is some pretty dark roasted coffee, it's generally much higher quality than McDonalds and certainly 7-11. It's also just a status symbol...hence the guy who walks around the office with a starbucks cup that has water in it...

In addition to conveying "busy-ness", it is a way of claiming a certain status level. Within the office hierarchy, inferiors are supposed to look busy, but would hesitate to walk into the office of a superior while smacking their lips over their latte. A superior would, however, feel free to enter the space of the inferior while doing just that.

Outside the office, where the hierarchy is unclear, the visitor and the host both "carry" to preempt being put in the position of the inferior.

I recommend the movie "Office Space" and observing the body language of the office villain as he terrorizes the peons, mug in hand.

10/10

I don't even drink coffee. It's bitter and disgusting. If you need caffeine you can get it cheap from a generic bottle of soda or caffeine pills. You don't need expensive muddy high-pH water.

The reason other people drink it is sheer force of habit. Most of the economy consists of the production and trade of useless things like coffee. The public has to be heavily encouraged to seek out and buy frivolous products or the whole economy would collapse. In the case of coffee, the economy of Colombia too.

Most Americans have entrenched market-driven habits they aren't even aware of, which researchers are adept at manipulating and reinforcing.

kjhkjkh wrote:

why do people always walk with a starbucks coffee cup? How come I hardly see a Mcdonalds or 7-11 cup?

See, this is the right question which leads to the answer to the OP's question. It's the same reason why professors are walking around all day with their mug in hand: pomp and circumstance. This country is simply full of arrogant men who are nothing more than a façade.

I think walking around with a cup of coffee allows you to enjoy it more. I've seen Europeans downing little cups of espresso as if they were doing shots of alchohol. They didn't even bother to sit down in the cafes to drink it. It didn't really seem like they were enjoying it. Of course, it'd be pretty embarrassing to walk around town with that little Dixie cup of coffee.

I think the most correct answers orbit around the idea that taking the time out of the workday to sit in a coffee shop and enjoy a coffee seems wasteful. It's just part of the work ethic here: always look busy.

I remember a trip to Italy where the tour bus I was on pulled in to gas station to fuel up. Everyone got out and enjoyed their espresso in ceramic cups and the bus driver just waited. In the US we would have rushed to line up for crappy cups of gas station coffee in styrofoam cups.

Things are a little different in the Northwest. For one you'd never get coffee from Starbucks. Everyone prides themselves on getting coffee from their small batch, neighborhood spot. The more esoteric the better. Also, you always use your own refillable cup so you wouldn't know where it came from anyway. Carrying around a paper cup is taboo. Lastly, the scene is laid back enough that we do actually take time out of the workday to get coffee from time to time.

5/10 - anyone who frequently signs in at biotech sites knows that there's always a counter top where the sign in sheet resides. You place your coffee. Beside the sheet, pick up a pen, sign in then collect your coffee.

You're simply preying on pure ignorance here.