So there’s a man who was once called Rafael Lozano, but has since changed his name to the more singular Winter, and who now runs a blog in which he documents his attempt to visit every single Starbucks in the world. It’s called Starbucks Everywhere, of course, but perhaps it should known as Man Who Has Been to 11,733 Starbucks Says He Doesn’t Recommend the Coffee, because that’s what he’s been going around telling people. “My original motive was simply to accomplish something unique,” he says.
There were fewer than 1,000 Starbucks stores total when Winter started out 17 years ago, but now he’s been to 11,733 Starbucks on six continents, dropping over $100,000 in the process. The software programmer and consultant admittedly despises the chain’s coffee, but still drinks ten cups a day, and otherwise he likes the bathrooms and all that WiFi. Here he is, looking a bit chipper if not a little fatigued, on the day he hit 11,000 and pledged to “donate to women’s reproductive rights.” (Warning: loud Starbucks enthusiasm.)
Since the story has gone viral, a good deal of the reactions have spanned from “You’ve Wasted Your Life” to “what a waste of life,” which are examples of boilerplate trolling, but also messages from people whose dream-crushing words are perhaps just a little uninformed. If you think about it, paying two visits to the same Starbucks every day means you probably would have racked up at least $60,000 after 17 years, but you would have gone nowhere and this guy saw the world on his journey through the realm of Frappuccinos. Also, who wouldn’t want to drink ten cups of coffee a day for fun? Take that, coffee-gauntlet haters.
[RT]