The University of Minnesota has a fairly good selection of coffee shops: 3 Dunn Brothers, 2 Starbucks, 2 Java City stores, Einstein Bros, and various campus convenience stores.
I refuse to go to the Java City cafes. I started boycotting Java City because of the bitchy anti-Starbucks comments from the baristas. They see my tumbler and start brewing the hateraid:
I give my tumbler to the Java City baristas and hear:
“Ew, Starbucks! Gross! When are you going to get a Java City tumbler?”
Um, excuse me? Do they even make Java City tumblers? That’s like rocking a Ross T-shirt…
Java City is the Cooley Law School of coffee shops. Java City is what university dining services uses when it can’t attract a real coffee franchise. That’s right. The Java City baristas aren’t even Java City employees*, and yet they bitch about my Starbucks tumbler. Pfft!
Besides, the constant tumbler comments are simply bad customer service. You don’t have a tip jar because it would hurt your feelings…
Hence the boycott – I refuse to accept snark from bootleg foot court baristas who can be transferred to Panda Express tomorrow. I’m taking my money to a real coffee shop**.
*They work for University Dining Services (UDS).
** I also really like the off campus Dunn Brothers and Caribou Coffee… the neighborhood Caribou shut down though…